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THE    BOOK 


OP 


SAINT    NICHOLAS 


TRANSLATED    FROM    THE    ORIGINAL    DUTCH 


OF 


DOMINIE    NICHOLAS  ^EGIDIUS  OUDENARDE. 

7C  (/a 


'NEW- YORK: 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  82  CLIFF-ST. 

1836. 


[Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1836,  by 

JAMES  K.  PAULDING, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Southern  District  of  New-York.] 


k*  5       - 

• 


\ 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Dedication  .  .  .:'  >  »  ....  5 
Author's  Advertisement  .'..  .  .  '  '..'  .  7 
The  Legend  of  Saint  Nicholas  •  ,  *  . •  -  .  13 
The  Little  Dutch  Sentinel  of  the  Manhadoes  .  33 
Cobus  Yerks  '.  ,  .  '  .'  .  .  Y  .  73 
A  Strange  Bird  in  Nieuw- Amsterdam  ...  89 

Claas  Schlaschenschlinger 105 

The  Revenge  of  Saint  Nicholas  .  .  .  .128 
The  Origin  of  the  Bakers'  Dozen  .  .  .  .148 

The  Ghost .     167 

The  Nymph  of  the  Mountain  .  .  .  .192 
The  Ride  of  Saint  Nicholas  on  Newyear's  Eve  .  206 


936540 


TO 

THE  SOCIETIES  OF  SAINT  NICHOLAS 

IN    THE 

NEW   NETHERLANDS, 

COMMONLY  CALLED 

N  E  W-Y  0  R  K. 

MOST  DEAR  AND  WORTHY  ASSOCIATES, 
In  obedience  to  the  command  of  the  good  saint 
who  is  equally  an  object  of  affectionate  reverence 
to  us  all,  as  well  as  in  due  deference  to  the  feelings 
of  brotherhood  which  attach  us  irrevocably  to  those 
who  honour  his  name,  his  virtues,  and  his  country, 
I  dedicate  this  work  to  you  all  without  discrimina 
tion  or  exception.  As  descendants,  in  whole  or 
in  part,  from  that  illustrious  people  who,  after  con 
quering  nature  by  their  industry  and  perseverance, 
achieved  liberty  by  their  determined  valour,  and 
learning  and  science  by  their  intellectual  vigour, 
I  rejoice  to  see  you  instituting  bonds  of  union,  for 
the  purpose  of  preserving  the  remembrance  of  such 
an  honourable  lineage,  and  the  ties  of  a  common 
origin.  While  we  recollect  with  honest  pride  the 


vi 


DEDICATION. 


industry,  the  integrity,  the  enterprise,  ihe  love  of 
liberty,  and  the  heroism  of  old  "faderland"  let  us 
not  forget  that  the  truest  way  to  honour  worthy  an 
cestors  is  to  emulate  their  example 

That  you  may  long  live  to  cherish  the  memory 
of  so  excellent  a  saint,  and  such  venerable  fore 
fathers  is  the  earnest  wish  of 

Your  associate  and  friend, 

NICHOLAS  JCoioius  OUDENARDE. 

Nieuw- Amsterdam,  July,  J827. 


THE 

AUTHOR'S    ADVERTISEMENT, 

WHICH    IS    EARNESTLY    RECOMMENDED    TO  THE 
ATTENTIVE    PERUSAL    OF   THE    JU 
DICIOUS    READER. 


You  will  please  to  understand,  gentle  reader,  that 
being  a  true  descendant  of  the  adventurous  Hol 
landers  who  first  discovered  the  renowned  island 
of  Manhattan — which  is  every  day  becoming  more 
and  more  worth  its  weight  in  paper  money — I  have 
all  my  life  been  a  sincere  and  fervent  follower  of  the 
right  reverend  and  jolly  St.  Nicholas,  the  only  tu 
telary  of  this  mighty  state.  I  have  never,  on  any 
proper  occasion,  omitted  doing  honour  to  his  mem 
ory  by  keeping  his  birthday  with  all  due  observ 
ances,  and  paying  him  my  respectful  devoirs  on 
Christmas  and  Newyear's  eve. 
1  From  my  youth  upward  I  have  been  always 
careful  to  hang  up  my  stocking  in  the  chimney 
corner,  on  both  these  memorable  anniversaries  ;  and 
this  I  hope  I  may  say  without  any  unbecoming  ebul 
lition  of  vanity,  that  on  no  occasion  did  I  ever  fail 
to  receive  glorious  remembrances  of  his  favour  and 
countenance,  always  saving  two  exceptions.  Once 


Vlll  ADVERTISEMENT. 

when  the  good  saint  signified  his  displeasure  at  my 
tearing  up  a  Dutch  almanac,  and  again  on  occasion 
of  my  going  to  a  Presbyterian  meeting  house  with 
a  certain  little  Dutch  damsel,  by  filling  my  stock 
ings  with  snow  balls,  instead  savoury  oily  cookies. 

Saving  these  manifestations  of  his  displeasure,  I 
can  safely  boast  of  having  been  always  a  special 
favourite  of  the  good  St.  Nicholas,  who  hath  ever 
shown  a  singular  kindness  and  suavity  towards  me 
in  all  seasons  of  my  life,  wherein  he  hath  at  divers 
times  and  seasons  of  sore  perplexity,  more  than 
once  vouchsafed  to  appear  to  me  in  dreams  and 
visions,  always  giving  me  sage  advice  and  goodly 
admonition.  The  which  never  failed  of  being  of 
great  service  to  me  in  my  progress  through  life, 
seeing  I  was  not  only  his  namesake,  but  always 
reverently  honoured  his  name  to  the  best  of  my 
poor  abilities. 

From  my  youth  upward  I  have,  moreover,  been 
accustomed  to  call  upon  him  in  time  of  need  ;  and 
this  I  will  say  for  him,  that  he  always  came 
promptly  whenever  he  was  within  hearing.  I  will 
not  detain  the  expectant  reader  with  the  relation  of 
these  special  instances,  touching  the  years  of  my 
juvenility,  but  straightway  proceed  to  that  which  is 
material  to  my  present  purpose. 

The  reader  will  please  to  comprehend  that  after 
I  had,  with  the  labour  and  research  of  many  years, 
completed  the  tales  which  I  now,  with  an  humble 
deference,  offer  to  his  acceptance,  I  was  all  at  once 
struck  dumb,  with  the  unparalleled  difficulty  of  find- 


ADVERTISEMENT.  IX 

ing  a  name  for  my  work,  seeing  that  every  title 
appertinent  to  such  divertisements  hath  been  ap 
plied  over  and  over  again,  long  and  merry  agone. 
Now,  as  before  intimated  to  the  judicious  reader, 
whenever  I  am  in  sore  perplexity  of  mind,  as  not 
unfrequently  happens  to  such  as  (as  it  were)  cudgel 
their  brains  for  the  benefit  of  their  fellow-creatures 
— I  say,  when  thus  beleagured,  I  always  shut  my 
eyes,  lean  back  in  my  chair,  which  is  furnished 
•with  a  goodly  stuffed  back  and  arms,  and  grope  for 
that  which  I  require  in  the  profound  depths  of  ab 
straction. 

It  was  thus  I  comported  myself  on  this  trying 
occasion,  when,  lo  !  and  behold  !  I  incontinently  fell 
asleep,  as  it  were,  in  the  midst  of  my  cogitations, 
and  while  I  was  fervently  praying  to  the  good- 
hearted  St.  Nicholas  to  inspire  me  with  a  proper 
and  significant  name  for  this  my  mental  offspring. 
I  cannot  with  certainty  say  how  long  I  had  re 
mained  in  the  bonds  of  abstraction,  before  I  was 
favoured  with  the  appearance  of  a  vision,  which,  at 
first  sight,  I  knew  to  be  that  of  the  excellent  St. 
Nicholas,  who  scorns  to  follow  the  pestilent  fash 
ions  of  modern  times,  but  ever  appears  in  the  an 
cient  dress  of  the  old  patriarchs  of  Holland.  And 
here  I  will  describe  the  good  saint,  that  peradven- 
ture  all  those  to  whom  he  may,  in  time  to  come, 
vouchsafe  his  presence,  may  know  him  at  first 
sight,  even  as  they  know  the  father  that  begot 
them. 

He  is  a  right  fat,  jolly,  roistering  little  fellow — 

A3 


X  ADVERTISEMENT. 

if  I  may  make  bold  to  call  him  so  familiarly — and 
had  I  not  known  him  of  old  for  a  veritable  saint,  I 
might,  of  a  truth,  have  taken  him,  on  this  occasion, 
for  little  better  than  a  sinner.  He  was  dressed  in  a 
snuff-coloured  coat  of  goodly  conceited  dimensions, 
having  broad  skirts,  cuffs  mighty  to  behold,  and 
buttons  about  the  size  of  a  moderate  Newyear 
cooky.  His  waistcoat  and  breeches,  of  which  he 
had  a  proper  number,  were  of  the  same  cloth  and 
colour  ;  his  hose  of  gray  worsted  ;  his  shoes  high- 
quartered,  even  up  to  the  instep,  ornamented  with 
a  pair  of  silver  buckles,  exceedingly  bright ;  his  hat 
was  of  a  low  crown  and  right  broad  brim,  cocked 
up  on  one  side  ;  and  in  the  buttonholes  of  his  coat 
was  ensconced  a  long  delft  pipe,  almost  as  black  as 
ebony.  His  visage  was  the  picture  of  good-hu 
moured  benevolence  ;  and  by  these  marks  I  knew 
him  as  well  as  I  know  the  nose  on  my  own  face. 

The  good  saint,  being  always  in  a  hurry  on  er 
rands  of  good  fellowship,  and  especially  about  the 
time  of  the  holydays  of  Paas  and  Pinxster;  and 
being  withal  a  person  of  little  ceremony,  addressed 
me  without  delay,  and  with  much  frankness,  which 
was  all  exceedingly  proper,  as  we  were  such  old 
friends.  He  spoke  to  me  in  Dutch,  which  is  now 
a  learned  language,  understood  only  by  erudite 
scholars. 

"  What  aileth  thee,  my  Godson  Nicholas  ?"  quoth 
he. 

I  was  about  to  say  I  was  in  sore  perplexity  con- 


ADVERTISEMENT.  XI 

cerning  the  matter  aforesaid,  when  he  courteously 
interrupted  me,  saying, 

"  Be  quiet,  I  know  it,  and  therefore  there  is  no 
special  occasion  for  thee  to  tell  me.  Thou  shall 
call  thy  work  '  THE  BOOK  OF  ST.  NICHOLAS,'  in 
honour  of  thy  patroon ;  and  here  are  the  materials 
of  my  biography,  which  I  charge  thee,  on  pain  of 
empty  pockets  from  this  time  forward,  to  dilate  and 
adorn  in  such  a  manner,  as  that,  foreseeing,  as  I  do, 
thy  work  will  go  down  to  the  latest  posterity,  it 
may  do  honour  to  my  name,  and  rescue  it  from  that 
obscurity  in  which  it  hath  been  enveloped  through 
the  crying  ignorance  of  past  generations,  who  have 
been  seduced  into  a  veneration  for  St.  George,  St. 
Dennis,  St.  David,  and  other  doughty  dragon-slay 
ing  saints,  who  were  little  better  than  roistering 
bullies.  Moreover,  I  charge  thee,  as  thou  valuest 
my  blessing  and  protection,  to  dedicate  thy  work 
unto  the  worthy  and  respectable  societies  of  St. 
Nicholas  in  this  my  stronghold  in  the  New  World. 
Thou  mightst,  perhaps,  as  well  have  left  out  that 
prank  of  mine  at  the  carousing  of  old  Baltus,  but 
verily  it  matters  not.  Let  the  truth  be  told." 

Saying  this,  he  handed  me  a  roll  of  ancient  vel 
lum,  containing,  as  I  afterwards  found,  the  particu 
lars  which,  in  conformity  with  his  solemn  com 
mand,  I  have  dilated  into  the  only  veritable  biogra 
phy  of  my  patron  saint  which  hath  ever  been  given 
to  the  world.  The  one  hitherto  received  as  ortho 
dox  is,  according  to  the  declaration  of  the  saint 


Xll  ADVERTISEMENT. 

himself,  little  better  than  a  collection  of  legends, 
written  under  the  express  inspection  of  the  old  lady 
of  Babylon. 

I  reverently  received  the  precious  deposite,  and 
faithfully  promised  obedience  to  his  commands; 
whereupon  the  good  St.  Nicholas,  puffing  in  my 
face  a  whiff  of  tobacco  smoke  more  fragrant  than 
all  the  spices  of  the  East,  blessed  me,  and  departed 
in  haste,  to  be  present  at  a  wedding  in  Communi- 
paw.  Hereupon  I  awoke,  and  should  have  thought 
all  that  had  passed  but  a  dream,  arising  out  of  the 
distempered  state  of  my  mind,  had  I  not  held  in  my 
hand  the  identical  roll  of  vellum,  presented  in  the 
manner  just  related.  On  examination,  it  proved  to 
contain  the  matter  which  is  incorporated  in  the  first 
story  of  this  collection,  under  the  title  of  "  The 
Legend  of  St.  Nicholas,"  not  only  in  due  obedi 
ence  to  his  command,  but  in  order  that  hencefor 
ward  no  one  may  pretend  ignorance  concerning 
this  illustrious  and  benevolent  saint,  seeing  they 
have  now  a  biography  under  his  own  hand. 

Thus  much  have  I  deemed  it  proper  to  preface 
to  the  reader,  as  some  excuse  for  the  freedom  of 
having  honoured  my  poor  fictions  with  the  title  of 
The  Book  of  St.  Nicholas,  which  might  otherwise 
have  been  deemed  a  piece  of  unchristian  presump 
tion. 


THE   STORY   BOOK 


OP 


SAINT     NICHOLAS 


THE  LEGEND  OF  ST.  NICHOLAS. 

* 

EVERYBODY  has  heard  of  St.  Nicholas,  that 
honest  Dutch  saint,  whom  I  look  upon  as  having 
been  one  of  the  most  liberal,  good-natured  little 
fat  fellows  in  the  world.  But,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  though  everybody  has  heard,  nobody  seems 
to  know  anything  about  him.  The  place  of  his 
birth,  the  history  of  his  life,  and  the  manner  in 
which  he  came  to  be  the  dispenser  of  Newyear 
cakes,  and  the  patron  of  good  boys,  are  matters 
that  have  hitherto  not  been  investigated,  as  they 
ought  to  have  been  long  and  long  ago.  I  am  about 
to  supply  this  deficiency,  and  pay  a  debt  of  honour 
which  is  due  to  .this  illustrious  and  obscure  tute 
lary  genius  of  the  jolly  Newyear. 

It  hath  often  been  justly  remarked  that  the  birth, 

parentage,  and  education  of  the  most  illustrious 

personages  of  antiquity,  are  usually  enveloped  in 

the  depths  of  obscurity.  And  this  obscurity,  so  far 

2 


1  4-  \  THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.    NICHOLAS. 

from  being  injurious  to  their  dignity  and  fame,  has 
proved  highly  beneficial ;  for  as  no  one  could  tell 
who  were  their  fathers  and  mothers  on  earth,  they 
could  the  more  easily  claim  kindred  with  the  skies, 
and  trace  their  descent  from  the  immortals.  Such 
was  the  case  with  Saturn,  Hercules,  Bacchus,  and 
others  among  the  heathens ;  and  of  St.  George, 
St.  Dennis,  St.  Andrew,  St.  Patrick,  and  the  rest 
of  the  tutelaries,  of  whom — I  speak  it  with  great 
respect  and  reverence — it  may  justly  be  said,  that 
nobody  would  ever  have  heard  of  their  progenitors 
but  for  the  renown  of  their  descendants.  It  is, 
therefore,  rfo  reflection  on  the  respectable  St. 
Nicholas,  that  his  history  has  hitherto  remained  a 
secret,  and  his  origin  unknown. 

In  prosecuting  this  biography,  and  thus  striving 
to  repay  my  obligations  for  divers,  and  I  must  say 
unmerited  favours  received  from  this  good  saint, 
after  whom  I  was  christened,  I  shall  refrain  from 
all  invention  or  hyperbole,  seeking  the  truth  indus 
triously,  and  telling  it  simply  and  without  reserve 
or  embellishment.  I  scorn  to  impose  on  my  read 
ers  with  cock  and  bull  stories  of  his  killing  dragons, 
slaughtering  giants,  or  defeating  whole  armies  of 
pagans  with  his  single  arm.  St.  Nicholas  was  a 
peaceful,  quiet,  orderly  saint,  who,  so  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  learn,  never  shed  a  drop  of  blood  in 
his  whole  life,  except,  peradventure,  it  may  be  pos 
sible  he  sometimes  cut  his  finger,  of  which  I  pro 
fess  to  know  nothing,  and,  therefore,  contrary  to 
the  custom  of  biographers,  shall  say  nothing. 


THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  15 

St.  Nicholas  was  born — and  that  is  all  I  can  tell 
of  the  matter — on  the  first  of  January  ;  but  in  what 
year  or  at  what  place,  are  facts  which  I  have  not 
been  able  to  ascertain,  although  I  have  investigated 
them  with  the  most  scrupulous  accuracy.  His  ob 
scurity  would  enable  me  to  give  him  a  king  and 
queen  for  his  parents,  whereby  he  might  be  able 
to  hold  up  his  head  with  the  best  of  them  all ;  but, 
as  I  before  observed,  I  scorn  to  impose  such  doubt 
ful,  to  say  no  worse,  legends  upon  my  readers. 

Nothing  is  known  of  his  early  youth,  except  that 
it  hath  come  down  to  us  that  his  mother  dreamed, 
the  night  before  his  birth,  that  the  sun  was  changed 
into  a  vast  Newyear  cake  and  the  stars  into  oily 
cooks — which  she  concluded  was  the  reason  they 
burned  so  bright.  It  hath  been  shrewdly  intimated 
by  certain  would-be  antiquaries,  who  doubtless 
wanted  to  appear  wiser  than  they  really  were,  that 
because  our  worthy  saint  was  called  Nicholas,  that 
must  of  course  have  been  the  name  of  his  father. 
But  1  set  such  conjectures  at  naught,  seeing  that  if 
all  the  sons  were  called  after  their  fathers,  the  dis 
tinction  of  senior  and  junior  would  no  longer  be 
sufficient,  and  they  would  be  obliged  to  number 
them  as  they  do  in  the  famous  island  of  Nantucket, 
where  I  hear  there  are  thirty-six  Isaac  Coffins  and 
sixteen  Pelegs. 

Now,  of  the  first  years  of  the  life  of  good  St. 
Nicholas,  in  like  manner,  we  have  been  able  to 
learn  nothing  until  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  baker 
in  the  famous  city  of  Amsterdam,  after  which  this 


16  THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

metropolis  was  once  called,  but  which  my  readers 
doubtless  know  was  christened  over  again  when 
the  English  usurped  possession,  in  the  teeth  of  the 
great  right  of  discovery  derived  from  the  illustrious 
navigator,  Henricus  Hudson,  who  was  no  more  an 
Englishman  than  I  am. 

Whether  the  youth  Nicholas  was  thus  appren 
ticed  to  a  baker  on  account  of  his  mother's  dream, 
or  from  his  great  devotion  to  Newyear  cakes,  which 
may  be  inferred  from  the  bias  of  his  after  life,  it  is 
impossible  to  tell  at  this  distant  period.  It  is  cer 
tain,  however,  that  he  was  so  apprenticed,  and  that 
is  sufficient  to  satisfy  all  reasonable  readers.  As 
for  those  pestilent,  curious,  prying  people,  who 
want  to  know  the  why  and  wherefore  of  everything, 
we  refer  them  to  the  lives  of  certain  famous  per 
sons,  which  are  so  intermingled  and  confounded 
with  the  lives  of  their  contemporaries,  and  the 
events,  great  and  small,  which  happened  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  during  their  sojourn  on  the  earth, 
that  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  say  whose  life  it  is 
we  are  reading.  Many  people  of  little  experience 
take  the  title  page  for  a  guide,  not  knowing,  perad- 
venture,  they  might  almost  as  safely  rely  upon  his 
tory  for  a  knowledge  of  the  events  of  past  ages. 

Little  Nicholas,  our  hero,  was  a  merry,  sweet- 
tempered  caitiff,  which  was,  doubtless,  somewhat 
owing  to  his  living  almost  altogether  upon  sweet 
things.  He  was  marvellously  devoted  to  cakes, 
and  ate  up  numberless  gingerbread  alphabets  before 
he  knew  a  single  letter. 


THE    LEGEND    OF  ST.  NICHOLAS.  17 

Passing  over  the  intermediate  years,  of  which, 
indeed,  I  know  no  more  than  the  man  in  the  moon, 
I  come  to  the  period  when,  being  twenty-four,  and 
the  term  of  his  apprenticeship  almost  out,  he  fell 
desperately  in  love  with  the  daughter  of  his  worthy 
master,  who  was  a  burgomaster  of  forty  years 
standing.  In  those  unprecocious  times,  the  boys 
did  not  grow  to  be  men  and  the  girls  women,  so 
soon  as  they  do  now.  It  w*ould  have  been  consid 
ered  highly  indecent  for  the  former  to  think  of  fall 
ing  in  love  before  they  were  out  of  their  time,  or 
the  latter  to  set  up  for  young  women  before  they 
knew  how  to  be  anything  else.  But  as  soon  as 
the  worthy  Nicholas  arrived  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
four,  being,  as  I  said,  within  a  year  of  the  expira 
tion  of  his  time,  he  thought  to  himself  that  Katrin- 
chee,  or  Catharine,  as  the  English  call  it,  was  a 
clever,  notable  little  soul,  and  eminently  calculated 
to  make  him  a  good  wife.  This  was  the  main 
point  in  the  times  of  which  I  am  speaking,  when 
people  actually  married  without  first  running  mad 
either  for  love  or  money. 

Katrinchee  was  the  toast  of  all  the  young  bakers 
of  Amsterdam,  and  honest  Nicholas  had  as  many 
rivals  as  there  were  loaves  of  bread  in  that  re 
nowned  city.  But  he  was  as  gallant  a  little  Dutch 
man  as  ever  smoked  his  way  through  the  world 
pipe  foremost,  and  did  not  despair  of  getting  the 
better  of  his  rivals,  especially  as  he  was  a  great 
favourite  with  the  burgomaster,  as,  indeed,  his  con 
duct  merited.  Instead  of  going  the  vulgar  way  to 
2* 


18  THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

work,  and  sighing  and  whining  out  romance  in  her 
ear,  he  cunningly,  being  doubtless  inspired  by 
Cupid  himself,  proceeded  to  insinuate  his  passion, 
and  make  it  known  by  degrees,  to  the  pretty  little 
Katrinchee,  who  was  as  plump  as  a  partridge,  and 
had  eyes  of  the  colour  of  a  clear  sky. 

First  did  he  bake  a  cake  in  the  shape  of  a  heart 
pierced  half  through  by  a  toasting  fork,  the  which 
he  presented  her  smoking  hot,  which  she  received 
with  a  blush  and  did  eat,  to  the  great  encourage 
ment  of  the  worthy  Nicholas.  A  month  after,  for 
he  did  not  wish  to  alarm  the  delicacy  of  the  pretty 
Katrinchee,  he  did  bake  another  cake  in  the  shape 
of  two  hearts,  entwined  prettily  with  a  true  lover's 
knot.  This,  too,  she  received  with  a  blush,  and 
did  eat  with  marvellous  content.  After  the  expira 
tion  of  a  like  period,  he  did  contrive  another  cake 
in  the  shape  of  a  letter,  on  which  he  had  ingeni 
ously  engraven  the  following  couplet : — 

"  Wer  diesen  glauben  wohlt  hat  die  vernanft  verschworen, 
Dem  denken  abgesaght  sein  eigentham  verlohren." 

The  meaning  of  which,  if  the  reader  doth  not  com 
prehend,  I  do  hereby  earnestly  advise  him  to  set 
about  studying  the  Dutch  language  forthwith,  that 
he  may  properly  appreciate  its  hidden  beauties. 

Little  Katrinchee  read  this  poesy  with  a  sigh, 
and  rewarded  the  good  Nicholas  with  a  look  which, 
as  he  afterward  affirmed,  would  have  heated  an 
oven.  i 

Thus  did  the  sly  youth  gradually  advance  him- 


THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  19 

self  in  the  good  graces  of  the  little  damsel,  until  at 
length  he  ventured  a  downright  declaration,  in  the 
shape  of  a  cake  made  in  the  exact  likeness  of  a 
little  Dutch  Cupid.  The  acceptance  of  this  was 
conclusive,  and  was  followed  by  permission  to  ad 
dress  the  matter  to  the  decision  of  the  worthy  bur 
gomaster,  whose  name  I  regret  hath  not  come 
down  to  the  present  time. 

The  good  man  consulted  his  pipe,  and  after  six 
months'  hard  smoking,  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  thing  was  feasible.  Nicholas  was  a  well- 
behaved,  industrious  lad,  and  the  burgomaster  justly 
concluded  that  the  possession  of  virtuous  and  in 
dustrious  habits  without  houses  and  lands,  was 
better  than  houses  and  lands  without  them.  So  he 
gave  his  consent  like  an  honest  and  ever  to  be 
respected  magistrate. 

The  news  of  the  intended  marriage  spoiled  all 
the  bread  baked  in  Amsterdam  that  day.  The 
young  bakers  were  so  put  out  that  they  forgot  to 
put  yeast  in  their  bread,  and  it  was  all  heavy.  But 
the  hearts  of  the  good  Nicholas  and  his  bride  were 
as  light  as  a  feather  notwithstanding,  and  when 
they  were  married  it  was  truly  said  there  was  not 
a  handsomer  couple  in  all  Amsterdam. 

They  lived  together  happily  many  years,  and 
nothing  was  wanting  to  their  felicity  but  a  family 
of  little  chubby  boys  and  girls.  But  it  was  or 
dained  that  he  never  should  be  blessed  with  any 
offspring,  seeing  that  he  was  predestined  to  be  the 
patron  and  benefactor  of  the  children  of  others,  not 


20  THE    LEGEND    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS. 

of  his  own.  In  good  time,  and  in  the  fullness  of 
years,  the  burgomaster  died,  leaving  his  fortune 
and  his  business  to  Nicholas,  who  had  ever  been  a 
kind  husband  to  his  daughter,  and  a  dutiful  son  to 
himself.  Rich  and  liberal,  it  was  one  of  the  chief 
pleasures  of  the  good  Nicholas  to  distribute  his 
cakes,  of  which  he  baked  the  best  in  all  Amster 
dam,  to  the  children  of  the  neighbourhood,  who 
came  every  morning,  and  sometimes  in  the  evening ; 
and  Nicholas  felt  his  heart  warm  within  his  bosom 
when  he  saw  how  they  ate  and  laughed,  and  were 
as  happy,  ay,  and  happier,  too,  than  so  many  little 
kings.  The  children  all  loved  him,  and  so  did  their 
fathers  and  mothers,  so  that  in  process  of  time  he 
was  made  a  burgomaster,  like  his  father-in-law 
before  him. 

Not  only  did  he  entertain  the  jolly  little  folk  of 
the  city  in  the  manner  heretofore  described,  but 
his  home  was  open  to  all  travellers  and  sojourners 
who  had  no  other  home,  as  well  as  those  who  came 
recommended  from  afar  off.  In  particular  the 
good  pilgrims  of  the  church,  who  went  about 
preaching  and  propagating  the  true  faith,  by  the 
which  I  mean  the  doctrines  of  the  illustrious  re 
formers  in  all  time  past. 

The  good  Nicholas  had,  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
life,  embraced  these  doctrines  with  great  peril  to 
himself,  for  sore  were  the  persecutions  they  under 
went  in  those  days  who  departed  from  the  crying 
abominations  of  the  ancient  church  ;  and  had  it  not 
been  for  the  good  name  he  had  established  in  the 


THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  21 

city  of  Amsterdam,  among  all  classes,  high  and 
low,  rich  and  poor,  he  might,  peradventure,  have 
suffered  at  the  stake.  But  he  escaped,  as  it  were, 
by  a  miracle,  and  lived  to  see  the  truth  triumph  at 
last  even  throughout  all  the  land. 

But  before  this  came  to  pass  his  faithful  and 
affectionate  helpmate  had  been  taken  from  him  by 
death,  sorely  to  his  grief;  and  he  would  have  stood 
alone  in  the  world  had  it  not  been  for  the  little 
children,  now  grown  up  to  be  men  and  women, 
who  remembered  his  former  kindness,  and  did  all 
they  could  to  console  him — for  such  is  ever  the 
reward  of  kindness  to  our  fellow-creatures. 

One  night  as  he  was  sitting  disconsolate  at  home, 
thinking  of  poor  Katrinchee,  and  wishing  that 
either  she  was  with  him  or  he  with  her,  he  heard  a 
distant  uproar  in  the  street,  which  seemed  ap 
proaching  nearer  and  nearer.  He  was  about  to 
rise  and  go  to  the  door  to  see  what  was  the  occa 
sion,  when  suddenly  it  was  pushed  open  with  some 
violence,  and  a  man  rushed  past  him  with  very 
little  ceremony.  He  seemed  in  a  great  hurry,  for 
he  panted  for  breath,  and  it  was  some  time  before 
he  could  say, 

"I  beseech  thee  to  shut  the  door  and  hide  me, 
for  my  life  is  in  danger." 

Nicholas,  who  never  refused  to  do  a  good-natured 
act,  did  as  he  was  desired,  so  far  as  shutting  and 
barring  the  door.  He  then  asked, 

"  What  hath  endangered  thy  life,  and  who  art 
thou,  friend,  that  thou  art  thus  afraid  ?" 


22  THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.    NICHOLAS. 

"  Ask  me  not  now,  I  beseech  thee,  Nicholas — " 

"  Thou  knowest  my  name  then  ?"  said  the  other, 
interrupting  him. 

"  I  do — everybody  knows  thee,  and  thy  kindness 
of  heart.  But  ask  me  nothing  now — only  hide  me 
for  the  present,  and  when  the  danger  is  past  I  will 
tell  thee  all." 

"  Thou  art  no  murderer  or  fugitive  from  jus 
tice?" 

"  No,  on  my  faith.  I  am  sinned  against,  but  I 
never  injured  but  one  man,  and  I  was  sorry  for 
that.  But  hark,  I  hear  them  coming — wilt  thou 
or  wilt  thou  not  protect  me  ?" 

"I  will,"  said  the  good  Nicholas,  who  saw  in 
the  dignified  air  and  open  countenance  of  the  stran 
ger  something  that  inspired  both  confidence  and 
awe.  Accordingly  he  hastily  led  him  into  a  re 
mote  apartment,  where  he  secreted  him  in  a  closet, 
the  door  of  which  could  not  be  distinguished,  and 
in  which  he  kept  his  money  and  valuables,  for  he 
said  to  himself,  I  will  trust  this  man,  he  does  not 
look  as  if  he  would  abuse  my  confidence. 

"  Take  this  key  and  lock  thyself  in,  that  thou 
mayst  be  able  to  get  out  in  case  they  take  me 
away." 

Presently  there  was  heard  a  great  hallooing  and 
banging  at  the  outward  door,  with  a  cry  of  "  Open  ! 
open  !"  and  Nicholas  went  to  the  door  and  opened  it. 
A  flood  of  people  rushed  in  helter-skelter,  demand 
ing  the  body  of  an  arch  heretic,  who,  they  said,  had 
been  seen  to  take  refuge  in  the  house.  But  with 


THE    LEGEND   OF    ST.    NICHOLAS.  23 

all  their  rage  and  eagerness,  they  begged  his  ex 
cuse  for  this  unceremonious  proceeding,  for  Nich 
olas  was  beloved  and  respected  by  all,  though  he 
was  a  heretic  himself. 

"  He's  here — we  saw  him  enter !"  they  cried. 

"  If  he  is  here,  find  him,"  quoth  Nicholas,  quietly. 
"  I  will  not  say  he  is  not  here,  neither  would  I  be 
tray  him  if  he  were." 

The  interlopers  then  proceeded  to  search  all 
parts  of  the  house,  except  the  secret  closet,  which 
escaped  their  attention.  When  they  had  done  this, 
one  of  them  said. 

"  We  have  heard  of  thy  having  a  secret  place  in 
thy  house  where  thy  money  and  papers  are  secured. 
Open  it  to  us — we  swear  not  to  molest  or  take 
away  aught  that  is  thine." 

The  good  Nicholas  was  confounded  at  this 
demand,  and  stood  for  a  moment  not  knowing 
what  to  say  or  what  to  do.  The  stranger  in  the 
closet  heard  it  too ;  but  he  was  a  stout-hearted  man, 
and  trusted  in  the  Lord. 

"  Where  is  thy  strong  closet  ?"  cried  one  of  the 
fiercest  and  most  forward  of  the  intruders.  "  We 
must  and  will  find  it." 

"  Well,  then,  find  it,"  quoth  Nicholas,  quietly. 

They  inspected  the  room  narrowly,  and  knocked 
against  the  walls  in  hopes  the  hollow  sound  would 
betray  the  secret  of  the  place.  But  they  were 
disappointed,  for  the  door  was  so  thick  that  it  re 
turned  no  hollow  sound. 


24  THE    LEGEND   OF  ST.    NICHOLAS. 

They  now  began  to  be  impatient,  and  savage 
withal,  and  the  ferocious  leader  exclaimed, 

"  Let  us  take  this  fellow  then.  One  heretic  is 
as  good  as  another — as  bad  I  mean." 

"  Seize  him  !"  cried  one. 

"  Away  with  him !"  cried  another. 

"  To  the  stake  !"  cried  a  third. 

They  forgot  the  ancient  kindness  of  the  good 
man;  for  bigotry  and  over-heated  zeal  remember 
not  benefits,  and  pay  no  respect  to  the  obligations 
of  gratitude.  The  good  Nicholas  was  violently 
seized,  his  hands  tied  behind  him,  and  he  was 
about  to  be  carried  away  a  sacrifice  to  the  demon 
of  religious  discord,  when  the  door  of  the  closet 
flew  open,  and  the  stranger  came  forth  with  a  step 
so  firm,  a  look  so  lofty  and  inspired,  that  the  rabble 
quailed,  and  were  silent  before  him. 

"  Unbind  this  man,"  said  he,  in  a  voice  of  author 
ity,  "  and  bind  me  in  his  stead." 

Not  a  man  stirred.  They  seemed  spell  bound, 
and  stood  looking  at  each  other  in  silent  embarrass 
ment. 

"  Unbind  this  man,  I  say  !" 

Still  they  remained,  as  it  were,  petrified  with 
awe  and  astonishment. 

"  Well,  then,  I  shall  do  it  myself,"  and  he  pro 
ceeded  to  release  the  good  Nicholas  from  his  bonds, 
while  the  interlopers  remained  silent  and  motion 
less. 

"  Mistaken  men  !"  then  said  he,  looking  at  them 
with  pity,  mingled  with  indignation,  "  you  believe 


THE   LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  25 

yourselves  fulfilling  the  duties  of  your  faith  when 
you  chase  those  who  differ  from  you  about  the 
world,  as  if  they  were  wild  beasts,  and  drag  them 
to  the  stake,  like  malefactors  who  have  committed 
the  worst  crimes  against  society.  You  think  that 
the  blood  of  human  victims  is  the  most  acceptable 
offering  to  your  Maker,  and  worse  than  the  igno 
rant  pagans,  who  made  martyrs  of  the  blessed 
saints,  sacrifice  them  on  the  altar  of  a  religion 
which  is  all  chanty,  meekness,  and  forgiveness. 
But  I  see  you  are  ashamed  of  yourselves.  Go, 
and  do  so  no  more." 

The  spirit  of  intolerance  quailed  before  the  maj 
esty  of  truth  and  genius.  The  poor  deluded  men, 
whose  passions  had  been  stimulated  by  mistaken 
notions  of  religious  duty,  bowed  their  heads  and 
departed,  rebuked  and  ashamed. 

"Who  art  thou?"  asked  Nicholas,  when  they 
were  gone. 

"  Thou  shalt  soon  know,"  replied  the  stranger. 
"  In  the  mean  time  listen  to  me.  I  must  be  gone 
before  the  fiend,  which  I  have,  perhaps,  only  laid 
for  a  few  moments,  again  awakens  in  the  bosoms 
of  these  deluded  men,  or  some  others  like  them 
get  on  the  scent  of  their  prey,  and  track  their  vic 
tim  hither.'  Listen  to  me,  Nicholas,  kind  and  good 
Nicholas.  Thou  wouldst  have  endangered  thy 
own  life  for  the  safety  of  a  stranger — one  who  had 
no  claim  on  thee  save  that  of  hospitality — nay,  not 
even  that,  for  I  was  not  thy  guest  by  invitation,  but 
intrusion.  Blessed  be  thee  and  thine,  thy  house, 
3  B 


26  THE    LEGEND    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS. 

thy  memory  when  thou  art  dead,  and  thy  lot  here 
after.  Thou  art  worthy  to  know  who  I  am." 

He  then  disclosed  to  him  a  name  with  which 
the  world  hath  since  rung,  from  clime  to  clime, 
from  country  to  country.  A  name  incorporated  in 
separably  with  the  interests  of  truth  and  the  pro 
gress  of  learning. 

"  Tell  it  not  in  Gath — proclaim  it  not  in  the 
streets  of  Askalon,"  continued  he,  "  for  it  is  a  name 
which  carries  with  it  the  sentence  of  death  in  this 
yet  benighted  city.  Interests  of  the  deepest  nature 
— interests  vitally  connected  with  the  progress  of 
truth — the  temporal  and  eternal  happiness  of  mil 
lions  living,  of  millions  yet  unborn,  brought  me 
hither.  The  business  I  came  upon  is  in  part  per 
formed  ;  but  it  is  now  known  to  some  that  I  am,  or 
have  been  in  the  city,  who  will  never  rest  till  they 
run  me  down  and  tear  me  in  pieces.  Farewell, 
and  look  for  thy  reward,  if  not  here,  hereafter — for, 
sure  as  thou  livest  and  breathest,  a  good  action, 
done  with  a  pure  and  honest  motive,  is  twice 
blessed — once  to  the  doer  and  once  to  him  to  whom 
it  is  done." 

The  good  Nicholas  would  have  knelt  to  the 
mighty  genius  that  stood  before  him,  but  he  pre 
vented  him. 

"  I  am  no  graven  image,  nor  art  thou  an  idolater 
that  thou  shouldst  kneel  to  me.  Farewell !  Let 
me  have  thy  prayers,  for  the  prayers  of  a  good  man 
are  indeed  blessings." 

Saying  this,  the  illustrious  stranger  departed  in 


THE    LEGEND    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS.  27 

haste,  and  Nicholas  never  saw  him  more  for  a  long 
time.     But  he  said  to  himself, 

"  Blessed  is  my  house,  for  it  hath  sheltered  the 
bright  light  of  the  universe." 

From  that  time  forward,  he  devoted  himself  to 
the  good  cause  of  the  reformation  with  heart  and 
soul.  His  house  was  ever  the  refuge  of  the  per 
secuted  ;  his  purse  the  never-failing  resource  of 
the  distressed ;  and  many  were  the  victims  of 
bigotry  and  intolerance  whom  his  influence  and 
entreaties  saved  from  the  stake  and  the  torture. 
He  lived  a  blessing  to  all  within  the  sphere  of  his 
influence,  and  was  blessed  in  living  to  see  the  faith 
which  he  loved  and  cherished  at  length  triumph 
over  the  efforts  of  power,  the  arts  of  intrigue,  and 
the  fire  of  bigotry. 

Neither  did  he  forget  or  neglect  the  customary 
offices  of  kindness  and  good  will  to  the  little  chil 
dren  of  the  city,  who  continued  still  to  come  and 
share  his  goodly  cakes,  which  he  gave  with  the 
smile  and  the  open  hand  of  kind  and  unaffected 
benignity.  It  must  have  been  delightful  to  see  the 
aged  patriarch  sitting  at  his  door,  while  the  little 
boys  and  girls  gathered  together  from  all  parts  to 
share  his  smiles,  to  be  patted  on  the  head,  and 
kissed,  and  laden  with  his  bounties. 

Every  Newyear's  day  especially,  being  his  birth 
day,  as  it  came  round,  was  a  festival,  not  only  to 
all  the  children,  but  to  all  that  chose  to  come  and 
gee  him.  It  seemed  that  he  grew  younger  instead 
pf  older  on  each  return  of  the  season ;  for  he  re* 
B2 


28  THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

ceived  every  one  with  smiles,  and  even  his  ene 
mies  were  welcome  to  his  good  cheer.  He  had 
not  the  heart  to  hate  anybody  on  the  day  which 
he  had  consecrated  to  innocent  gayety,  liberal  hos 
pitality,  and  universal  benevolence.  In  process  of 
time,  his  example  spread  among  the  whole  city,  and 
from  thence  through  the  country,  until  every  vil 
lage  and  town,  nay,  every  house,  adopted  the  good 
custom  of  setting  apart  the  first  day  of  the  year  to 
be  gay  and  happy,  to  exchange  visits,  and  shake 
hands  with  friends  and  to  forgive  enemies. 

Thus  the  good  Nicholas  lived,  blessing  all  and 
blessed  by  all,  until  he  arrived  at  a  happy  old  age. 
When  he  had  reached  fourscore  years,  he  was  sit 
ting  by  himself  late  in  the  evening  of  the  first  of 
January,  old  style,  which  is  the  only  true  and  gen 
uine  era  after  all — the  new  style  being  a  pestilent 
popish  innovation — he  was  sitting,  I  say,  alone,  the 
visiters  having  all  departed,  laden  with  gifts  and 
good  wishes.  A  knock  was  heard  at  the  door, 
which  always  opened  of  itself,  like  the  heart  of  its 
owner,  not  only  on  Newyear's  day,  but  every  day 
in  the  year. 

A  stately  figure  entered  and  sat  down  by  him, 
after  shaking  his  hand  right  heartily.  The  good 
Nicholas  was  now  old,  and  his  eyesight  had  some 
what  failed  him,  particularly  at  night. 

"  Thou  art  welcome,"  quoth  the  old  man. 

"  I  know  it,"  replied  the  other,  "  every  one  is 
welcome  to  the  house  of  the  good  Nicholas,  not 


THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  29 

only  on  this,  but  every  other  day.  I  have  heard  of 
thee  in  my  travels." 

"  Thou  knowest  my  name — may  I  not  know 
thine  ?" 

The  stranger  whispered  a  name  in  his  ear,  which 
made  the  heart  of  the  good  Nicholas  leap  in  his 
bosom. 

"Dost  thou  remember  the  adventure  of  the 
closet  ?"  said  the  stranger. 

"  Yea — blessed  be  the  day  and  the  hour,"  said 
the  old  man. 

And  now  they  had  a  long  conversation,  which 
pertained  to  high  matters,  not  according  with  the 
nature  of  my  story,  and  therefore  I  pass  them  by, 
more  especially  as  I  do  not  exactly  know  what 
they  were. 

"  I  almost  fear  to  ask  thee,"  at  length  said  Nich 
olas  ;  "  but  thou  wilt  partake  of  my  cheer,  on  this 
the  day  of  my  birth.  I  shall  not  live  to  see  another." 

Old  people  are  often  prophetic  on  the  duration 
of  their  lives. 

"  Assuredly,"  replied  the  other,  "  for  it  is  neither 
beneath  my  character  nor  calling  to  share  the  good 
man's  feast,  and  to  be  happy  when  I  can." 

So  they  sat  down  together  and  talked  of  old 
times,  and  how  much  better  the  new  times  were 
than  the  old,  inasmuch  as  the  truth  had  triumphed, 
and  they  could  now  enjoy  their  consciences  in 
peace. 

The  illustrious  visiter  staid  all  night ;  and  the 
3* 


30  THE    LEGEND    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS. 

next  morning,  as  he  was  about  to  depart,  the  aged 
Nicholas  said  to  him, 

"  Farewell — I  shall  never  see  thee  again.  Thou 
art  going  a  long  journey,  thou  sayst,  but  I  am 
about  venturing  on  one  yet  longer." 

"  Well,  be  it  so,"  said  the  other.  "  But  those 
who  remain  behind  will  bless  thy  name  and  thy 
memory.  The  little  children  will  love  thee,  and 
so  long  as  thy  countrymen  cherish  their  ancient 
customs,  thou  wilt  not  be  forgotten." 

They  parted,  and  the  prediction  of  the  good 
Nicholas  was  fulfilled.  He  fell  asleep  in  the  arms 
of  death,  who  called  him  so  softly,  and  received 
him  so  gently  in  his  embrace,  that  though  his 
family  knew  he  slept,  they  little  thought  it  was  for 
ever. 

When  this  news  went  abroad  into  the  city,  you 
might  see  the  worthy  burgomasters  and  citizens 
knocking  the  ashes  out  of  their  pipes,  and  putting 
them  quietly  by  in  their  buttonholes  ;  and  the  good 
housewives,  ever  and  anon  lifting  their  clean  white 
aprons  to  their  eyes,  that  they  might  see  to  thread 
their  needles  or  find  the  stitches,  as  they  sat  knit 
ting  their  stockings.  The  shops  and  schools  were 
all  shut  the  day  he  was  buried ;  and  it  was  re 
marked  that  the  men  neglected  their  usual  amuse 
ments,  and  the  little  children  had  no  heart  to  play. 

When  the  whole  city  had  gathered  together  at 
the  side  of  his  grave,  there  suddenly  appeared 
among  them  a  remarkable  and  goodly-loqking  man, 


THE    LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  31 

of  most  reverent  demeanour.  Every  one  bowed 
their  bodies,  in  respectful  devotion,  for  they  knew 
the  man,  and  what  they  owed  him.  All  was  silent 
as  the  grave,  just  about  to  receive  the  body  of 
Nicholas,  when  he  I  have  just  spoken  of  lifted  his 
head,  and  said  as  follows  : — 

"  The  g.ood  man  just  about  to  enter  the  narrow 
house  never  defrauded  his  neighbour,  never  shut 
his  door  on  the  stranger,  never  did  an  unkind  ac 
tion,  nor  ever  refused  a  kind  one  either  to  friend  or 
foe.  His  heart  was  all  goodness,  his  faith  all  pur 
rity,  his  morals  all  blameless,  yea,  all  praiseworthy. 
Such  a  man  deserves  the  highest  title  that  can  be 
bestowed  on  man.  Join  me  then,  my  friends,  old 
and  young — men,  women,  and  children,  in  blessing 
his  memory  as  the  good  Saint  Nicholas;  for  I 
know  no  better  title  to  such  a  distinction  than  pure 
faith,  inflexible  integrity,  and  active  benevolence." 
Thus  spake  the  great  reformer,  John  Calvin. 

The  wfiole  assembled  multitude,  with  one  voice 
and  one  heart,  cried  out,  "  Long  live  the  blessed 
memory  of  the  good  St.  Nicholas  !"  as  they  pi 
ously  consigned  him  to  the  bosom  of  his  mother 
earth. 

Thus  did  he  come  to  be  called  St.  Nicholas; 
and  the  people,  not  content  with  this,  as  it  were  by 
a  mutual  sympathy,  and  without  coming  to  any 
understanding  on  the  subject,  have  ever  since  set 
apart  the  birthday  of  the  good  man,  for  the  exer 
cise  of  hospitality  to  men,  and  gifts  to  little  chil 
dren.  From  the  Old  World  they  carried  the  cus- 


32  THE   LEGEND    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

torn  to  the  New,  where  their  posterity  still  hold  it 
in  reverence,  and  where  I  hope  it  will  long  continue 
to  flourish,  in  spite  of  the  cold  heartless  forms,  un 
meaning  ceremonies,  and  upstart  pretensions  of 
certain  vulgar  people,  who  don't  know  any  better, 
and  therefore  ought  to  be  pitied  for  their  ignorance, 
rather  than  contemned  for  their  presumption. 


THE 


LITTLE  DUTCH  SENTINEL 


OF    THE 


MANHADOES. 


"  How  times  change  in  this  world,  and  especial 
ly  in  this  New  World !"  exclaimed  old  Aurie  Do- 
remus,  as  he  sat  at  the  door  of  his  domicil — the  last 
of  the  little  Dutch  houses,  built  of  little  Dutch 
bricks,  with  gable  end  turned  to  the  street — on  a 
sultry  summer  evening,  in  the  year  so  many  hon 
est  people  found  out  that  paper  money  was  not  sil 
ver  or  gold.  Half  a  dozen  of  his  grown-up  grand 
children  were  gathered  about  him,  on  the  seats  of 
the  little  porch,  the  top  of  which  was  shaped  some 
thing  like  an  old  revolutionary  cocked  hat,  as  the 
good  patriarch  made  this  sage  observation.  He 
was  in  fine  talking  humour,  and  after  a  little  while, 
went  on  amid  frequent  pauses,  as  if  taxing  his 
memory  to  make  up  his  chronicle. 

"  It  was  the  twenty-fourth — no,  the  twenty-fifth 
of  March,  1609,  that  Hendrick  Hudson  sailed  from 
Amsterdam.  On  the  fourth  of  September,  after 
coasting  along  Newfoundland  to  Cape  Cod,  from 
Cape  Cod  to  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  thence  back 
B  3 


34  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

again  along  the  Jersey  coast,  he  came  in  sight  of 
the  Highlands  of  Neversink,  and  anchored  in  the 
evening  inside  of  Sandy  Hook.  This  was  in  1609 
— how  long  ago  is  that,  Egbert  ?"  said  the  good  man, 
turning  to  me. 

"  Two  hundred  and  sixteen  years,"  replied  I, 
after  sore  tribulation,  for  I  never  was  good  at  ci 
phering. 

"  Two  hundred  and  sixteen  years — well,  at  that 
time  there  was  not  a  single  white  man,  or  white 
man's  habitation,  in  sight  of  where  we  are  now  sit 
ting,  in  the  midst  of  thousands,  ten  of  thousands — 
I  might  almost  say  hundreds  of  thousands.  Ah ! 
boys,  'tis  a  rapid  growth,  and  Heaven  grant  it  may 
not  afford  another  proof,  that  the  quick  of  growth 
are  quick  of  decay."  After  musing  a  little  he  pro 
ceeded,  as  if  speaking  to  himself  rather  than  to  us. 

"  If  it  were  possible  that  an  Indian,  who  had 
lived  on  this  spot  at  the  time  of  Hudson's  first  visit, 
could  rise  from  the  dead,  with  all  his  recollections 
of  the  past  about  him,  what  would  he  think  at  be 
holding  the  changes  that  have  taken  place.  No 
thing  that  he  had  ever  seen,  nothing  that  he  had 
ever  known,  would  he  recognise  ;  for  even  the  face 
of  the  earth  has  passed  away,  and  the  course  of  the 
mighty  rivers  intruded  upon  by  the  labours  of  the 
white  strangers.  No  vestiges,  not  even  the  roots 
of  the  woods  where  he  hunted  his  game — no  land 
marks  familiar  to  his  early  recollections — no  ruins 
of  his  ancient  habitations — no  traces  to  guide  him 
fo  the  spot  where  once  reposed  the  remains  of  his 


Of   THE    MANHADOES.  35 

fathers — nothing  to  tell  him  that  his  eyes  had 
opened  on  the  very  spot  where  they  closed  two 
hundred  years  ago."  Again  he  paused  a  few  mo 
ments,  and  then  resumed  his  cogitations. 

"  And  this  is  not  all,  its  name  and  destinies,  as 
well  as  its  nature,  are  changed.  From  the  Man- 
hadoes  of  the  ancient  proprietors,  it  passed  into  the 
New- Amsterdam  of  the  Dutch,  and  the  New-York 
of  the  English  ;  and  now,"  continued  he,  his  eyes 
sparkling  with  exultation — "  now  it  is  the  posses 
sion  of  a  free  and  sovereign  people.  The  sandy 
barren  which  formed  the  projecting  point  of  our 
isle,  and  where  a  few  Indian  canoes  were  hauled  up, 
is  now  the  resort  of  thousands  of  stately  ships,  com 
ing  from  the  farthest  parts  of  the  earth,  and  bearing 
the  rich  products  of  the  New  World  into  every 
corner  of  the  Old,  Their  masts  bristle  around  the 
city,  like  the  leafless  trees  of  a  wintry  forest.  The 
rugged  island,  to  which  nature  had  granted  nothing 
but  its  noble  situation,  and  which  seemed  con 
demned  to  perpetual  sterility,  is  now  become  a  re 
gion  of  rich  gardens  and  white  groups  of  houses — i 
the  very  rocks  are  turned  to  beds  of  flowers,  and 
the  tangled  swamps  of  ivy  clinging  about  the  stint 
ed  shrubbery,  into  smooth  lawns,  embellishing  and 
embellished  by  the  sprightly  forms  of  playful  lads 
and  lasses,  escaped  from  the  city  to  enjoy  a  sum 
mer  afternoon  of  rural  happiness.  All,  all  is 
changed — and  man  the  most  of  all.  Simplicity  has 
given  place  to  the  ostentatious,  vulgar  pride  of 
purse-proud  ignorance — the  wild  Indian  to  the  idle 


36  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

and  effeminate  beau — politeness  to  ceremony — 
comfort  to  splendour — honest  mechanics  to  knavish 
brokers — morals  to  manners — wampum  to  paper 
money — and  the  fear  of  ghosts  to  the  horror  of 
poverty."  Here  again  the  old  man  paused,  and 
seemed  to  retire  within  himself  for  a  minute  or  two ; 
after  which  I  observed  him  begin  to  chuckle  and 
rub  his  hands,  while  his  mischievous  old  eye  as 
sumed  a  new  vivacity. 

"  I  wonder  what  figure  our  Dutch  belles  or  beaux 
of  1700,  or  thereabout,  would  make  at  a  rout,  or 
the  Italian  opera  ?  I'faith  I  believe  they  would  be 
more  out  of  their  element  than  the  Indian  I  spoke 
of  just  now.  They  would  certainly  make  rare  sport 
in  a  cotillon,  and  I  doubt  would  never  arrive  at 
that  acme  of  modern  refinement,  which  enables 
people  to  prefer  sounds  without  sense,  to  sense 
without  sound — and  to  expire  with  ecstasy  at  sen 
timents  expressed  in  a  language  of  which  they 
don't  comprehend  a  word." 

"  But  did  they  believe  in  ghosts,  grandfather  ?" 
asked  the  youngest  little  granddaughter,  who  was 
just  beginning  to  dip  in  the  modern  wonders  of  ro 
mance,  and  had  been  caught  by  the  word  ghost  in 
the  old  gentleman's  harangue. 

"  Ay,  that  they  did,  and  in  everything  else.  Now 
people  believe  in  nothing  except  what  they  see  in 
the  newspapers — and  the  only  exercise  of  their 
faith  appears,  not  indeed  in  believing  a  crust  of 
bread  is  a  shoulder  of  mutton,  but  that  a  greasy  rag 
of  paper  is  a  guinea.  I  have  heard  my  grandfather 


OF    THE    MANHADOES.  37 

tell  fifty  stories  of  ghosts  and  witches ;  but  they 
have  all  passed  from  my  memory,  except  one  about 
a  little  Dutch  sentinel,  which  he  used  to  repeat  so 
often,  that  I  have  never  forgotten  it  to  this  day." 

"  Oh,  tell  us  the  story,"  cried  the  little  romance 
reader,  who  was  the  old  gentleman's  prime  favour 
ite,  and  to  whom  he  never  thought  of  denying  any 
thing,  either  in  or  out  of  reason.  "  I'll  give  you 
two  kisses  if  you  will." 

"  A  bargain,"  cried  the  good  Aurie ;  "  come  hither, 
baggage."  The  little  girl  presented  first  one  rosy 
cheek  and  then  the  other,  which  he  kissed  affec 
tionately,  and  began  as  follows,  while  we  all  gath 
ered  about  him,  and  listened  like  so  many  Schah- 
riars. 

"  Once  upon  a  time,  then,  to  use  the  words  of  a 
pleasant  and  instructive  historian,  the  governors  of 
New- Amsterdam  were  little  kings,  and  the  burgo 
masters  such  great  men,  that  whoever  spoke  ill  of 
one  of  them,  had  a  bridle  put  into  his  mouth,  rods 
under  his  arms,  and  a  label  on  his  breast  recording 
his  crime.  In  this  trim  he  was  led  by  the  sheriff 
and  tied  to  a  post,  where  he  remained  a  spectacle 
to  the  public,  and  an  example  to  all  evil  doers — or 
rather  evil  sayers.  I  wonder  how  such  a  custom 
would  go  down  nowadays,  with  the  great  cham 
pions  of  the  liberty  of  the  press  ?  Then,  too,  in 
stead  of  street  inspectors,  whose  duty  it  is  to  take 
care  of  one  side  of  a  street  and  let  the  other  take 
care  of  itself,  there  were  roy  meestera  to  look  to 
4 


38  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

the  fences,  and  keep  the  cows  from  trespassing  on 
their  neighbour's  pastures  —  then  the  houses  were 
covered  with  reeds  and  straw,  and  the  chimneys 
were  made  of  wood  —  then  all  matrimonial  disputes 
were  settled  by  '  a  commissary  of  marriage  affairs,' 
and  no  man  could  eat  a  loaf  of  bread,  except  the 
flour  had  been  inspected  by  the  *  comptroller  gen 
eral  of  the  company's  windmill,'  who  could  be  no 
other  than  the  sage  Don  Quixote  himself  —  then,- 
the  distinction  of  ranks,  instead  of  being  designated 
by  great  and  little  barons,  was  signified  by  great 
and  little  burghers,  who  danced  hipsey-saw  and 
reels—  plucked  the  goose—  rambled  on  the  com 
mons,  now  the  park,  for  nuts  and  strawberries- 
made  parties  of  pleasure  to  enjoy  the  retired  shades 
of  the  Ladies'  Valley,  since  metamorphosed  into 
Maiden  Lane  —  shot  bears  in  the  impenetrable  for 
ests  of  Harlem  Heights  —  hunted  the  deer  along 
the  Bloomirigdale  road  —  and  erected  Maypoles  on 
the  first  of  May,  in  the  great  meadow  where  the 
college  now  stands." 

"  In  what  year  of  our  Lord  was  that  ?"  asked  the 
little  pet  lady. 

"  Why,  in  the  year  1670,  or  thereabout,  you  bag- 


"  I  declare  I  thought  it  must  have  been  some-- 
where  about  the  year  one,"  said  she,  laughing, 
The  old  man  patted  her  cheek,  and  went  on. 

"  About  this  time  the  good  citizens  of  New-  Am 
sterdam  were  most  especially  afraid  of  three  things 
—  Indians,  ghosts,  and  witches.  For  the  first,  they 


OP   THE    MANHADOES.  39 

had  good  reason,  for  the  Indians  inhabited  the 
country  around  them  in  all  directions,  and  though 
the  honest  Amsterdamers  could  beat  them  at  a 
bargain,  there  was  another  game  at  which  they  had 
rather  the  advantage.  In  regard  to  ghosts  and 
witches,  I  'cannot  say  as  much  in  justification  of 
their  fears.  But  that  is  neither  here  nor  there. 
Some  people  that  will  run  like  a  deer  from  real 
danger,  defy  ghosts  and  witches,  and  all  their 
works ;  while  the  fearless  soldier  who  faces  death 
without  shrinking  in  a  hundred  battles,  trembles 
and  flees  from  a  white  cow  in  a  churchyard,  or  a 
white  sheet  on  a  clothes  line,  of  a  moonlight  night. 
It  was  thus  with  honest  JAN  SOL,  the  little  Dutch 
sentinel  of  the  Manhadoes. 

"Jan  was  a  short,  square-built,  bandy-legged, 
broad-faced,  snub-nosed  little  fellow,  who  valued 
himself  upon  being  an  old  soldier ;  a  species  of 
men  that,  with  the  exception  of  travellers,  are  the 
most  given  to  telling  what  are  called  tough  stories, 
of  any  people  in  the  world.  According  to  his  own 
account,  he  had  been  in  more  pitched  battles  than 
Henry  the  Lion,  or  Julius  Caesar;  and  made  more 
lucky  escapes  than  any  knight-errant  on  record. 
The  most  miraculous  one  of  all,  was  at  some  bat 
tle — I  forget  the  name — where  he  would  certainly 
have  been  killed,  if  he  had  not  very  opportunely  ar 
rived  just  after  it  was  over.  But  though  one  of  the 
most  communicative  persons  in  the  world,  he  never 
gave  any  tolerable  reason  for  visiting  New-Amster 
dam.  He  hinted,  indeed,  that  he  had  been  invited 


40  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

over  to  discipline  the  raw  provinclias;  but  there  was 
a  counter  story  abroad,  that  he  was  drummed  out  of 
the  regiment  for  walking  in  his  sleep,  and  empty 
ing  the  canteens  of  the  whole  mess.  Indeed,  he 
did  not  positively  deny  that  he  was  apt  to  be  a 
rogue  in  his  sleep ;  but  then  he  made  it  up  by  be 
ing  as  honest  as  the  day  when  he  was  awake. 

"  However  this  may  be,  at  the  time  I  speak  of, 
Jan  Sol  figured  as  corporal  in  the  trusty  city  guard, 
whose  business  it  was  to  watch  during  the  night, 
to  guard  against  the  inroads  of  the  savages,  and  to 
enforce,  in  the  daytime,  the  military  code  estab 
lished  for  the  good  order  and  well  being  of  the  me 
tropolis.  This  code  consisted  of  nineteen  articles, 
every  one  of  which  was  a  perfect  blue  law.  Bread 
and  water,  boring  tongues  with  a  red-hot  iron, 
hanging,  and  such  like  trifles,  were  the  least  a  man 
had  to  expect  in  those  days.  The  mildest  inflic 
tion  of  the  whole  code,  was  that  of  riding  a  wooden 
horse,  for  not  appearing  on  parade  at  the  ringing  of 
a  bell.  This  town  was  always  famous  for  bellring- 
ing.  Jan  had  many  a  ride  in  this  way  for  nothing. 
Among  the  most  rigid  of  these  regulations,  was  one 
which  denounced  death  for  going  in  and  out  of  the 
fort,  except  through  the  gate  ;  and  another,  ordain 
ing  a  similar  punishment  for  entering  or  leaving 
the  city  by  any  other  way  but  the  land  poort,  after 
the  mayor  had  gone  his  rounds  in  the  evening,  and 
received  the  keys  from  the  guard. 

"  The  state  of  society,  and  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  Indians,  I  suppose,  made  these  severe  restric- 


OP   THE   MANHADOES.  41 

tions  necessary  ;  and  we  are  not,  while  sitting  qui 
etly  at  our  firesides,  out  of  their  reach,  to  set  our 
selves  in  judgment  upon  our  ancestors,  who  planted 
the  seeds  of  this  empire  in  the  midst  of  dangers. 
In  the  little  sketch  of  New- Amsterdam  to  which  I 
have  before  referred,  and  which  is  well  worth  your 
reading,  it  is  stated  that  the  gate  was  shut  in  the 
evening  before  dark,  and  opened  at  daylight.  At 
nine  o'clock  the  tattoo  was  beat,  as  the  signal  for 
the  honest  folks  to  go  to  sleep  as  quick  as  possible, 
and  it  is  recorded  they  all  obeyed  the  summons  in 
the  most  exemplary  manner.  The  sentinels  were 
placed  at  different  points  considered  the  most  ac 
cessible,  and  changed  every  half  hour,  that  being 
the  limit  of  a  quiet,  orderly  Dutchman's  capacity 
for  keeping  awake  after  nine  o'clock. 

"  One  bright  moonlight  night,  in  the  month  of 
August,  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  Jan  Sol  to  mount  guard, 
not  a  hundred  yards  from  the  great  gate,  or  land 
poort,  which  was  situated  in  Broadway,  near  where 
Trinity  Church  now  stands.  Beyond  this,  between 
Liberty  and  Courtlandt  streets,  stood  the  compa 
ny's  windmill,  where  nearly  all  the  flour  was  made 
for  the  consumption  of  the  little  metropolis.  The 
place  where  he  took  his  rounds  was  a  sand  bank, 
elevated  above  the  surrounding  objects,  and  whence 
he  could  see  the  river,  the  opposite  shore  of  New- 
Jersey,  then  called  Pavonia,  the  capacious  bay,  and 
the  distant  hills  of  Staten  Island.  The  night  was 
calm,  and  the  cloudless  sky  showed  thousands  of 
wandering  glories  overhead,  whose  bright  twink- 
4* 


42  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

lings  danced  on  the  slow  undulating  surface  of  the 
glassy  mirror.  All  round  there  was  perfect  silence 
and  repose,  nothing  moved  upon  the  land  or  the  wa 
ters,  neither  lights  were  burning  nor  dogs  barking  ; 
these  sagacious  animals  having  been  taught,  by  a 
most  infallible  way  of  appealing  to  their  instincts, 
that  it  was  unlawful  to  disturb  the  somniferous  in 
dulgences  of  their  masters.  It  was  a  scene  for  po 
etic  inspiration,  but  Jan  Sol  was  no  poet,  although 
he  often  availed  himself  of  the  poetic  license  in  his 
stories.  He  was  thinking  of  something  else,  be 
sides  the  beauty  of  the  night  and  the  scene.  The 
truth  is,  his  nerves  were  very  much  out  of  order  at 
that  moment. 

"  It  was  about  the  time  that  witches  made  their 
first  appearance  in  the  New  World,  whither  they 
came,  I  suppose,  to  escape  the  pleasant  alternative 
of  being  either  drowned  or  hanged,  proffered  to 
them  in  those  days  by  the  good  people  of  England. 
But  they  got  out  of  the  frying  pan  into  the  fire,  as 
history  records,  particularly  to  the  eastward  of  the 
Manhadoes,  where  some  of  them  underwent  the  or 
deal  of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego.  Others 
fled  to  New-Amsterdam,  greatly  to  the  discomfort 
of  the  good  citizens,  who  took  such  umbrage  at 
broomsticks,  that  the  industrious  and  cleanly  house 
wife's  vocation  of  sweeping  the  parlour  twelve  times 
a  day  was  considered  as  naught.  It  is  affirmed, 
that  instead  of  a  broom,  they  used  the  broad- 
brimmed  Sunday  hats  of  their  husbands  in  blowing 
away  the  dust,  for  fear  of  being  taken  for  witches. 


OF    THE    MANHADOES.  43 

There  was  a  universal  panic,  and  a  universal  dust 
throughout  all  the  city. 

"  But  this  was  not  the  worst  of  it  either.  Just 
about  this  time  Dominie  Egidius  Luyck  prophesied 
the  world  was  coming  speedily  to  an  end,  as  plain 
ly  appeared  from  the  great  quantity  of  toad  stools, 
which  made  their  appearance  in  the  Ladies'  Valley 
and  Windmill  Meadow  after  a  heavy  rain.  This 
prophecy  was  followed  up  by  the  appearance  of 
the  northern  lights,  falling  stars,  and  mysterious 
rattlings  of  invisible  carriages  through  the  streets 
at  midnight.  To  crown  all,  an  inspired  fanatic  had 
passed  through  the  Broadway,  crying  out  'Wo, 
wo  to  the  crown  of  pride,  and  the  drunkards  of 
Ephraim.  Two  woes  past,  and  the  third  coming, 
except  ye  repent — repent — repent.'  All  these  hor 
rors  now  encompassed  the  imagination  of  Jan  Sol, 
as  he  paced  the  little  sand  hillock  with  slow  steps, 
and  from  time  to  time  started  at  his  shadow.  The 
half  hour  seemed  an  age,  and  never  did  anybody 
long  so  much  for  the  appearance  of  a  corporal's 
guard  to  relieve  him. 

"  He  had  not  been  on  his  watch  more  than  ten 
minutes,  or  so,  when,  happening  to  look  towards 
the  opposite  shore  of  Pavonia,  he  saw  something 
moving  on  the  waters  like  a  canoe  shooting  across 
the  river.  Five  hundred  Indians  with  tomahawks 
and  scalping  knives  all  at  once  stood  before  the 
little  sentinel,  whose  imagination  was  ready  cocked 
and  primed  for  the  reception  of  all  sorts  of  horrors. 
He  had  a  great  mind  to  fire  his  gun,  and  alarm  the 


44  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

garrison,  but  a  little  of  the  fear  of  his  companions' 
jokes  restrained  him  for  that  time.  However,  he 
drew  a  pistol,  and  refreshed  his  courage  with  a  lit 
tle  of  the  genuine  Schiedam,  after  which  he  ven 
tured  to  look  that  way  again.  But  the  canoe  had 
disappeared  in  a  most  miraculous  manner,  and  Jan 
was  satisfied  in  his  own  mind,  that  it  was  neither 
more  nor  less  than  the  ghost  of  a  canoe.  There 
was  not  much  consolation  in  this ;  but  it  was  better 
than  the  five  hundred  Indians,  with  their  toma 
hawks  and  scalping  knives. 

"  The  night  breeze  now  sprung  up  with  its  chill 
ing  dews,  and  cooled  Jan's  courage  till  it  nearly 
fell  down  to  the  freezing  point.  The  wind,  or 
some  other  cause,  produced  a  sort  of  creaking  and 
moaning  in  the  old  crazy  windmill,  which  drew  the 
eyes  of  the  little  sentinel  in  that  direction.  At  that 
moment,  Jan  saw  a  head  slowly  rising  and  peep 
ing  over  the  wall,  directly  in  a  line  with  the  wind 
mill.  His  eyes  became  riveted  to  the  spot,  with 
the  irresistible  fascination  of  overwhelming  terror. 
Gradually  the  head  was  followed  by  shoulders, 
body  and  legs,  which  Jan  swore  belonged  to  a  gi 
ant  at  least  sixteen  ells  high.  After  sitting  a  mo 
ment  upon  the  wall,  the  figure,  according  to  Jan's 
relation  before  the  governor  next  morning,  put  forth 
a  pair  of  enormous  wings,  and  whirling  itself  round 
and  round  in  a  circle — while  its  eyes  flashed  fire, 
and  its  teeth  appeared  like  live  coals — actually  flew 
down  from  the  wall  towards  the  governor's  garden, 
where  it  disappeared,  or  rather  sank  into  the  ground, 


OF   THE    MA.NHADOES.  45 

close  by  the  garden  gate.  Jan  fired  his  gun,  and 
one  might  have  supposed  he  killed  himself,  for  he 
fell  flat  on  his  face,  apparently  as  dead  as  a  door 
nail. 

"  Here  he  was  found  by  the  relief  guard,  about 
five  minutes  afterwards,  with  his  face  buried  in  the 
sand  hill.  The  moment  they  touched  him,  he  be 
gan  to  roar  out  with  awful  vociferation,  *  Wo,  wo  to 
the  crown  of  pride,  and  the  drunkards  of  Ephraim.' 
They  could  make  nothing  of  Jan  or  his  story,  and 
forthwith  carried  him  to  the  *  big  house,'  as  it  was 
called,  where  the  governor  resided,  and  who,  to 
gether  with  the  whole  corporation  and  city,  had 
been  waked  by  the  discharge  of  the  gun.  Such  a 
thing  had  not  happened  within  the  memory  of  man. 
Jan  told  his  story,  and  swore  to  it  afterwards ;  but 
all  he  got  by  it,  was  a  ride  on  the  wooden  horse 
the  next  morning.  The  story,  however,  took  wind, 
and  there  was  more  liquor  sold  that  day  at  the 
Stadt  Herberg,  or  city  tavern,  than  for  a  whole 
week  before.  Coming  upon  the  back  of  the  do 
minie's  toad  stools,  the  northern  lights,  the  rum 
bling  of  the  invisible  wheels,  and  the  mysterious 
denunciation  of  the  drunkards  of  Ephraim,  it  made 
a  great  impression ;  and  many,  not  to  say  all,  be 
lieved  there  must  be  something  in  it.  Several 
people  went  to  church  the  next  day,  who  had  not 
been  there  since  they  were  christened. 

"  Measures  were  taken  the  following  night,  and 
for  several  nights  afterwards,  to  detect  this  gigantic 
spectre,  but  in  vain.  Nothing  appeared  to  disturb 


46  THE    LITTLE   DUTCH    SENTINEL 

the  quiet  repose  of  the  guard  and  the  city,  till  the 
next  Saturday  night,  when  it  came  to  Jan  Sol's 
turn  to  take  his  watch  upon  the  sand  hill,  about  the 
same  hour  as  before.  They  say  Jan  fortified  him 
self  with  a  double  allowance  of  Schiedam,  and  put 
a  little  Dutch  Bible  in  the  pocket  of  one  of  his 
breeches.  But  all  would  not  do,  for  many  people 
were  ready  to  swear  afterwards,  that  his  hair  stood 
on  end  so  sturdily  that  he  could  hardly  keep  his  tin 
cap  upon  it.  Ghosts,  hobgoblins,  and  all  that  sort 
of  thing,  have  not  only  a  propensity  to  visit  some 
one  particular  person,  but  are  likewise  extremely 
regular  in  their  habits,  as  well  as  in  their  hours  of 
appearing.  Exactly  at  the  same  hour  the  little 
canoe  shot  from  Pavonia — the  night  breeze  sprang 
up  as  before — the  old  windmill  began  to  creak  and 
moan — the  gigantic  spectre  peered  over  the  wall 
at  the  same  spot  as  before,  and  cautiously  glaring 
round  with  his  fiery  eyes,  unfurled  his  mighty 
wings,  and  after  turning  a  few  somersets,  flew  to 
wards  the  gate  of  the  governor's  garden,  where  he 
disappeared  as  before.  This  time  Jan  was  too  far 
gone  to  fire  his  matchlock,  but  a  few  minutes  after 
he  was  found  almost  insensible  with  fright,  by  the 
relief  guard,  who  carried  him  before  the  governor 
next  morning,  where  he  swore  to  the  same  story, 
and  was  complimented  with  another  ride  on  the 
wooden  horse. 

"  But  the  repetition  of  a  miracle  is  sure  to  make 
it  less  miraculous ;  and  a  wonder  twice  told  is 
Almost  half  proved.  People  began  to  believe,  and 


OF    THE    MANHADOES.  47 

from  believing,  to  be  sure  there  was  something  out 
of  the  way,  at  least,  in  this  affair.  Miracles,  like 
misfortunes,  never  come  single  ;  and  almost  every 
one  had  a  wonder  of  his  own  to  reinforce  that  of 
the  little  Dutch  sentinel.  At  least  fifty  of  them 
happened  within  less  than  a  week,  each  more 
alarming  than  the  other.  Doors  opened  at  mid 
night,  by  invisible  hands — strange  black  cats  with 
green  eyes,  and  sparks  of  fire  flying  out  of  their 
backs,  appeared  at  different  times — the  old  ma 
hogany  chests  of  drawers  made  divers  strange 
noises,  and  sometimes  went  off  with  a  re  port  almost 
as  loud  as  a  pistol — and  an  old  woman  coming  into 
market  with  cabbages  before  daylight  in  the  morn 
ing,  met  a  black  figure,  she  could  almost  swear  had 
a  tail  and  a  cloven  foot.  A  horseman  was  heard 
in  the  middle  of  the  night  galloping  furiously  to 
wards  the  land  poort,  crying  '  Whoa  !  whoa  !'  with 
a  hollow  voice ;  and  what  was  very  singular, 
though  several  persons  got  up  to  look  out  of  the 
windows,  not  one  could  see  the  least  sign  of  horse 
or  horseman.  In  short,  the  whole  city  of  New^ 
Amsterdam  was  in  a  panic,  and  he  was  a  bold  man 
that  did  not  run  away  from  his  own  shadow.  Evert 
the  '  big  house,'  where  the  governor  dwelt,  was  in 
fected,  insomuch  that  his  excellency  doubled  his 
guards,  and  slept  with  loaded  pistols  at  his  bed 
side.  One  of  these  made  a  voluntary  discharge 
one  night,  and  the  bullet  passed  right  through  the 
picture  of  Admiral  Van  Tromp,  which  hung  up  in 
the  chamber,  If  it  had  been  the  admiral  himself 


48  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

he  would  have  been  killed  as  sure  as  a  gun.  This 
accident  was  considered  as  very  remarkable,  as 
there  were  no  hair  triggers  in  those  days,  to  go  off 
of  themselves. 

"  There  was  at  that  time  a  public-spirited  little 
magistrate  in  office,  by  the  name  of  DIRCK  SMET, 
a  pipemaker  by  trade,  who  was  the  father  of  more 
laws  than  all  the  lawyers  before  or  after  him,  from 
Moses  down  to  the  present  time.  He  had  the  itch 
of  legislation  to  a  most  alarming  degree,  and  like 
Titus,  considered  he  had  lost  a  day  when  he  had 
not  begotten  at  least  one  law.  A  single  circum 
stance  or  event,  no  matter  how  insignificant,  was 
enough  for  him.  If  a  little  boy  happened  to  fright 
en  a  sober  Dutch  horse,  which,  by-the-way,  was  no 
such  easy  matter,  by  flying  his  kite,  the  worship 
ful  Dirck  Smet  would  forthwith  call  a  meeting  of 
the  common  council,  and,  after  declaiming  a  full 
hour  upon  the  dangers  of  kiteflying,  get  a  law 
passed,  denouncing  a  penalty  upon  all  wicked  pa 
rents  who  allowed  their  children  to  indulge  in  that 
pestilent  amusement.  If  there  happened  a  rumour 
of  a  man,  a  horse,  a  cow,  or  any  other  animal  be 
ing  bitten  by  a  mad  dog,  in  some  remote  part  of 
New-England,  or  elsewhere,  Dirck  Smet  would 
spout  a  speech  enough  to  make  one's  hair  stand  on 
end,  about  the  horrors  of  hydrophobia,  and  get  a 
law  passed  against  all  the  honest  mastiffs  of  New- 
Amsterdam,  who  had  no  more  idea  of  running  mad 
than  I  have  at  this  moment.  Owing  to  the  num 
ber  of  little  creeks  intersecting  the  city,  and  the 


OP    THE    MANHADOES.  49 

quantity  of  grass  growing  in  the  streets  at  that  time, 
there  was  never  a  finer  city  for  raising  flocks  of 
geese  than  New- Amsterdam — in  fact,  there  were  as 
many  geese  as  inhabitants.  Dirck  declared  war 
against  these  in  a  speech  of  three  hours,  which  so 
overpowered  the  council,  that  they  all  fell  asleep, 
and  passed  a  law  banishing  the  geese  from  the 
city ;  although  one  of  the  members,  who  had  the 
finest  goose  pond  in  the  place,  talked  very  learn 
edly  about  the  famous  goose  that  saved  the  capitol. 
It  is  said  that  Dirck's  antipathy  to  these  honest 
birds  arose  from  having  been  attacked  and  sorely 
buffeted  by  a  valiant  old  gander,  whose  premises  he 
had  chanced  to  invade  on  some  occasion.  He  was, 
indeed,  the  most  arrant  meddler  and  busybody  of 
his  day,  always  poking  his  nose  into  holes  and  cor 
ners,  ferreting  out  nuisances,  and  seeking  pretexts 
for  new  laws ;  so  that  if  the  people  had  paid  any 
attention  to  them  they  would  have  been  under  a 
worse  tyranny  than  that  of  the  Turk  or  the  Spaniard. 
But  they  were  saved  from  this  by  a  lucky  circum 
stance — the  council  thinking  they  did  enough  by 
making  the  laws,  let  them  take  care  of  themselves 
afterwards ;  and  honest  Dirck  Smet  was  too  busy 
begetting  new  laws,  to  mind  what  became  of  the 
old  ones.  Nevertheless,  he  got  the  reputation  of  a 
most  vigilant  magistrate,  which  means  a  pestilent 
intermeddler  with  people's  domestic  sports  and  oc 
cupations,  and  a  most  industrious  busybody  in  at 
tempting  impossibilities. 

"  As  soon  as  Dirck  Smet  heard  the  story  of  the 
5  c 


50  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

inroads  of  the  jvinged  jnonster,  he  fell  into  a  fever 
of  anxiety  to  do  something  for  the  good  of  the  com 
munity.  He  was  on  the  point  of  proposing  a  se 
vere  law  against  winged  monsters,  but  from  this  he 
was  dissuaded  by  a  judicious  friend,  who  represent 
ed  the  difficulty  of  catching  this  sort  of  delinquents, 
and  that  this  was  absolutely  necessary,  before  he 
could  punish  them.  Baffled  in  this  point,  he  fumed 
about  from  one  place  to  another,  insisting  that 
something  must  be  done  for  the  quiet  and  security 
of  the  city,  and  that  a  law  of  some  kind  or  other 
was  absolutely  necessary  on  the  occasion,  if  it 
were  only  to  show  their  zeal  for  the  public  good. 
It  was  his  opinion  that  a  bad  law  was  better  than  no 
law  at  all,  and  that  it  would  be  an  inexcusable  piece 
of  negligence  to  let  these  interloping  monsters  fly 
over  the  wall  with  impunity. 

"  All  this  while  his  excellency  the  governor  of 
New- Amsterdam  said  nothing,  but  thought  a  great 
deal.  He  was  a  little  jealous  of  the  popularity  of 
Dirck  Smet,  who  had  got  the  title  of  Father  of  the 
City,  on  account  of  having  saved  it  from  the  horrors 
of  flying  kites,  mad  dogs,  and  hissing  ganders.  In 
fact,  they  were  two  such  great  men,  that  the  city 
was  not  half  large  enough  for  them  both,  and  the 
consequence  was,  that  instead  of  assisting,  they 
only  stood  in  each  other's  way,  like  two  carts  in  a 
narrow  lane.  We  can  have  too  much  of  a  good 
thing,  even  as  regards  laws  and  rulers.  The  gov 
ernor  was  determined  to  do  nothing,  for  no  other 
reason  that  could  ever  be  discovered  than  because 


OF   THE    MANHADOES.  51 

his  rival  was  so  busy.  The  fears  of  the  good  cit 
izens,  however,  and  their  increasing  clamours 
against  the  negligence  of  their  rulers,  at  length 
roused  the  activity  of  the  governor,  who  forthwith 
convened  his  council,  to  deliberate  upon  the  best 
means  of  saving  the  city  of  New- Amsterdam. 

"  Dirck  Smet,  who  was  ex-officio  a  member,  was 
in  his  glory  on  this  occasion,  and  talked  so  much 
that  there  was  no  time  for  acting.  At  length,  how 
ever,  the  inward  man  gave  out,  and  he  had  not 
breath  to  say  anything  more.  It  was  then,  tradi 
tion  says,  that  a  silent  old  member,  who  never 
made  a  set  speech  in  his  life,  proposed,  in  as  few 
words  as  possible,  and  in  a  quiet  colloquial  man 
ner,  that  measures  should  be  first  taken  to  ascer 
tain  the  truth  of  the  story,  after  which  means  might 
be  found  to  detect  the  miracle  or  the  impostor, 
whatever  it  might  be.  It  is  affirmed  the  whole 
council  was  astonished  that  a  man  should  be  able 
to  say  so  much  in  so  few  words,  and  that  hence 
forth  the  silent  member  was  considered  the  wisest  of 
them  all.  Even  Dirck  Smet  held  his  tongue  for  the 
rest  of  the  sitting,  thus  furnishing  another  striking 
proof,  my  children,  that  good  sense  is  an  overmatch 
for  the  most  confirmed  garrulity.  The  same  old 
gentleman  suggested,  that  as  Saturday  night  seemed 
to  be  the  period  chosen  for  his  two  visits  by  the 
winged  monster,  it  would  be  advisable  to  place 
some  of  the  most  trusty  of  the  city  guard  in  am 
bush  in  the  vicinity  of  the  spot  where,  according 
to  the  testimony  of  Jan  Sol,  he  had  flown  over  the 
c  2 


52  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

wall,  to  intercept  him  there,  or  at  least  overtake 
him  in  his  progress  to  the  governor's  garden.  Ev 
erybody  wondered  at  the  wisdom  of  this  proposal, 
which  was  adopted  with  only  one  dissenting  voice. 
Dirck  Smet  moved,  as  an  amendment,  that  the 
word  '  progress'  should  be  changed  to  '  flight,'  but 
it  was  negatived,  greatly  to  his  mortification,  and 
therefore  he  voted  against  the  whole  proposition, 
declaring  it  went  against  his  conscience. 

"  Accordingly,  the  next  Saturday  night  a  party 
was  got  in  readiness,  of  six  picked  men  of  the  city 
guard,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Balthaser 
Knyff,  of  immortal  memory,  who  had  faced  more 
ghosts  in  his  generation  than  any  man  living.  The 
whole  band  was  equipped  with  an  extraordinary 
number  of  nether  garments  for  defence,  and  forti 
fied  with  double  allowance  of  Schiedam,  to  keep  up 
their  courage  in  this  arduous  service.  The  cap 
tain  was  considered  a  person  of  the  greatest  weight 
in  all  the  city ;  and  in  addition  to  this,  he  added  to 
his  specific  gravity,  by  stuffing  into  his  pocket  all 
the  leaden  weights  he  could  borrow  of  a  neighbour 
ing  grocer,  for  he  did  not  know  but  the  monster 
might  fly  away  with  him.  His  comrades  remon 
strated  that  this  additional  weight  would  impede 
his  pursuit  of  the  foe ;  but  the  captain  nobly  re 
plied,  '  it  was  beneath  a  soldier  to  run,  either  from 
or  after  an  enemy.'  The  most  perfect  secrecy 
was  preserved  in  all  these  arrangements. 

"  Thus  equipped,  they  took  their  station,  about 
eleven  o'clock  on  the  Saturday  night  following  the 


OF   THE    MANHADOES.  53 

last  appearance  of  the  winged  monster,  under  cover 
of  one  of  the  neighbouring  houses,  and  there  waited 
the  coming  of  the  mysterious  visiter.  Twelve 
o'clock,  the  favourite  hour  of  spectres  of  all  sorts, 
came  and  passed,  yet  no  spectre  appeared  peeping 
over  the  wall.  By  this  time  they  began  to  be 
wearied  with  long  watching,  and  it  was  proposed 
that  they  should  take  turns,  one  at  a  time,  while 
the  others  slept  off  the  fatigue  of  such  unheard-of 
service.  The  lot  fell  upon  Jan  Sol,  who  being,  as 
it  were,  a  sort  of  old  acquaintance  of  the  spectre, 
was  supposed  to  be  particularly  qualified  for  this 
honour.  Jan  forthwith  posted  himself  at  the  cor 
ner  of  the  house,  upon  one  leg,  to  make  sure  of 
keeping  awake,  as  he  had  whilome  seen  the  New- 
Amsterdam  geese  do,  ere  they  were  banished  from 
the  city,  by  the  inflexible  patriotism  of  Dirck  Smet, 
the  great  lawgiver. 

"  The  little  Dutch  sentinel  stood  for  about  half 
an  hour,  sometimes  on  one  leg,  sometimes  on  the 
other,  with  his  head  full  of  hobgoblins  and  his 
heart  full  of  fears.  All  was  silent  as  the  grave, 
save  the  sonorous  music  of  the  captain's  vocal  nose, 
or,  as  it  might  be  poetically  expressed,  '  living  lyre,' 
which  ever  and  anon  snorted  a  low  requiem  to  the 
waning  night.  The  moon  was  on  the  swift  de 
crease,  and  now  exhibited  an  arch  not  unlike  a 
bright  Indian  bow,  suspended  in  the  west,  a  little 
above  the  distant  horizon.  Gradually  it  sank 
behind  the  hills,  leaving  the  world  to  the  guardian, 
ship  of  the  watchmen  of  the  night,  the  twinkling 
5* 


54  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

stars.  Scarcely  a  minute  after,  the  heart  of  honest 
Jan  was  sent  bumping  against  his  trusty  ribs,  by 
the  appearance  of  something  slowly  rising  above 
the  indistinct  line  of  the  city  wall,  which  I  ought 
to  observe  was  made  of  wood.  The  spectre  grad 
ually  mounted  higher  and  higher,  and  rested  on 
the  very  spot  where  he  had  seen  it  twice  before. 
The  teeth  of  Jan  Sol  chattered,  and  his  knees 
knocked  against  each  other — but  he  stood  his 
ground  manfully,  and  either  would  not  or  could 
not  run  away.  This  time  the  spectre,  though  he 
appeared  with  two  enormous  wings  projecting  from 
his  shoulders,  did  not  whirl  them  round,  or  expand 
them  in  the  manner  he  had  done  before.  After 
sitting  perched  for  a  few  moments  on  the  wall,  he 
flew  down  to  the  ground,  and  crept  cautiously 
along,  under  cover  of  the  wall,  in  a  direction  to 
wards  the  big  house.  At  this  moment,  the  trusty 
Jan  with  some  difficulty  roused  his  companions, 
and  silently  pointed  to  the  spectre  gliding  along  as 
before  related.  Whether  it  was  that  it  saw  or 
heard  something  to  alarm  it,  I  cannot  say  ;  but 
scarcely  had  the  redoubtable  Captain  Knyff  risen, 
and  shaken  from  his  valiant  spirit  the  fumes  of 
sleep  and  Schiedam,  when  the  spirit  took  as  it 
were  to  itself  wings,  and  sped  rapidly  towards  the 
gate  of  the  governor's  garden.  The  party  pursued, 
with  the  exception  of  the  captain,  who  carried  too 
much  weight  for  a  race,  and  arrived  within  sight 
of  the  gate  just  in  time  to  see  the  spectre  vanish, 
either  under,  over,  or  inside  of  it,  they  could  not 


OP   THE    MANHADOES.  55 

tell  which.  When  they  got  to  the  gate,  they  found 
it  fast  locked,  a  proof,  if  any  had  been  wanting, 
that  it  must  have  been  something  supernatural. 

"  In  pursuance  of  their  instructions,  the  guard 
roused  the  governor,  his  household,  and  his  troops, 
with  the  intention  of  searching  the  garden,  and,  if 
necessary,  every  part  of  his  house,  for  the  purpose 
of  detecting  this  mysterious  intruder.    The  garden 
was  surrounded  by  a  high  brick  wall,  the  top  of 
which  bristled  with  iron  spikes  and  pieces  of  bot 
tles  set  in  mortar.     It  was  worth  a  man's  life  to 
get  over  it.     There  was  no  getting  in  or  out  except 
by  the  gate,  on  the  outside  of  which  the  governor 
stationed  two  trusty  fellows,  with  orders  to  stand 
a  little  apart,  and  perfectly  quiet.     Now  all  the 
governor's   household  was  wide  awake,  and  in  a 
bustle  of  anxiety  and  trepidation,  except  one  alone, 
who  did  not  make  her  appearance.     This  was  the 
governor's  only  daughter,  as  pretty  a  little  Dutch 
damsel  as  ever  crossed  Kissing  Bridge,  or  rambled 
over  the  green  fields  of  the  Manhadoes.     Com 
pared  to  the  queer  little  bodies  that  figure  nowa 
days  in  the  Broadway,  seemingly  composed  of 
nothing  but  hats,  feathers,  and  flounces,  she  was  a 
composition  of  real  flesh  and  blood,  which  is  better 
than  all  the  gauze,  silk,  tulle,  and  gros  de  Naples 
in  the  world.    A  man  marries  a  milliner's  shop 
instead  of  a  woman  nowadays,"  said  the  old  gen 
tleman,  glancing  a  little  archly  at  the  fashionable 
paraphernalia   of    his   pretty   pet  granddaughter. 
"  Her    face    and  form   was   all   unsophisticated 


56  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

native  beauty,  and  her  dress  all  simplicity  and 
grace." 

"  Is  that  her  picture  hanging  in  the  back  par 
lour  ?"  asked  the  little  girl,  in  a  sly  way. 

"  Yes ;  but  the  picture  does  not  do  justice  either 
to  the  beauty  or  the  dress  of  the  original." 

"  I  hope  not,"  said  the  other ;  "  for  if  it  does,  I 
am  sure  I  would  not  be  like  her  for  the  world." 

"  Pshaw,  you  baggage,"  replied  the  old  gentle 
man,  "  you'll  never  be  fit  to  hold  a  candle  to  her. 

"  The  search  now  commenced  with  great  vigour 
in  the  garden,  although  Jan  Sol  openly  declared  it 
as  his  opinion,  that  they  might  look  themselves 
blind  before  they  found  the  spectre,  who  could  fly 
over  a  wall  as  easy  as  a  grasshopper.  He  accord 
ingly  kept  aloof  from  the  retired  part  of  the  gar 
den,  and  stuck  close  to  his  noble  commander,  Cap 
tain  Knyff,  who  by  this  time  had  come  up  with 
the  pursuers.  All  search,  however,  proved  vain ; 
for  after,  a  close  investigation  of  more  than  an  hour, 
it  was  unanimously  agreed  that  the  intruder,  whe 
ther  man,  monster,  or  ghost,  could  not  possibly  be 
hid  in  the  garden.  The  governor  then  determined 
to  have  the  house  searched,  and  accordingly  the 
whole  party  entered  for  that  purpose,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  the  two  sentinels  without  the  gate. 
Here,  while  rummaging  in  closets,  peering  under 
beds,  and  looking  up  chimneys  in  vain,  they  were 
alarmed  by  a  sudden  shout  from  the  garden,  which 
made  their  hearts  quake  with  exceeding  apprehen 
sion.  The  shout  was  succeeded  by  loud  talking 


OF    THE    MANHADOES.  57 

and  apparent  tugging  and  struggling,  as  if  between 
persons  engaged  in  hot  contention.  At  the  same 
moment  the  governor's  daughter  rushed  into  her 
chamber,  and  throwing  herself  on  the  bed  with  a 
loud  shriek,  remained  insensible  for  some  time. 
Everybody  was  sure  she  had  seen  the  spectre. 

"  It  appears  that  while  the  search  was  going  on 
in  the  big  house,  and  the  attention  of  everybody 
employed  in  that  direction,  the  sentinels  outside  the 
gate  heard  the  key  cautiously  turned  inside,  then, 
after  a  little  pause,  slowly  open.  A  face  then 
peeped  out  as  if  to  take  an  observation,  and  the 
owner,  apparently  satisfied  that  the  coast  was 
clear,  darted  forward.  The  first  step,  he  unluckily 
tripped  over  a  rope  which  these  trusty  fellows  had 
drawn  across  the  gate,  and  fell  full  length  on  the 
ground.  Before  he  could  recover  his  feet  the  two 
sentinels  were  upon  him,  and  in  spite  of  his  exer 
tions  kept  him  down,  until  their  shouts  drew  the 
rest  of  the  guard  to  their  assistance.  The -spectre 
was  then  secured  with  ropes,  and  safely  lodged  in 
the  cellar  under  a  strong  escort,  to  await  his  exam 
ination  the  next  morning.  Jan  Sol  was  one  of  the 
band,  though  he  insisted  it  was  all  nonsense  to 
mount  guard  over  a  spectre. 

"  The  council  met  betimes  at  the  sound  of  a  bell, 
rung  by  a  worthy  citizen,  who,  in  addition  to  his 
vocation  of  bellringer,  was  crier  of  the  court,  mes 
senger  to  the  governor,  sexton,  clerk,  and  grave- 
digger  to  the  whole  city  of  New- Amsterdam.  It 
was  something  to  be  a  man  in  those  days,  before 
c  3 


58  THE   LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

the  invention  of  steam  engines,  spinning  jennies, 
and  chessplaying  automatons  caused  such  a  su 
perfluity  of  human  beings,  that  it  is  much  if  they 
can  now  earn  salt  to  their  porridge.  At  that  time, 
men  were  so  scarce,  that  there  were  at  least  half 
a  dozen  offices  to  one  man ;  now  there  are  half  a 
dozen  men  to  one  office  ;  all  which  is  owing  to 
machinery.  This  accumulation  of  honours  in  the 
person  of  the  bellringer,  made  him  a  man  of  con 
siderable  consequence,  insomuch,  that  the  little 
boys  about  Flattenbarrack  Hill  chalked  his  name 
upon  their  sleighs,  and  it  is  even  asserted  that  he 
had  an  Albany  sloop  called  after  him.  I  could, 
therefore,  do  no  less  than  make  honourable  mention 
of  a  person  of  his  dignity. 

"  After  the  council  met,  and  everything  was  ready, 
the  door  of  the  cellar  was  cautiously  opened,  and 
Jan  Sol,  at  the  head,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  rear  of 
a  file  of  soldiers,  descended  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  forth  this  daring  interloper,  who  had  thus, 
from  time  to  time,  disturbed  the  sleep  of  the  sober 
citizens  of  New-Amsterdam.  Jan  offered  to  bet 
a  canteen  of  Schiedam,  that  they  would  find  nobody 
in  the  cellar ;  but,  contrary  to  all  expectation,  they 
presently  came  forth  with  the  body  of  a  comely 
youth,  apparently  about  the  age  of  five-and-twenty, 
which  was  considered  very  young  in  those  days. 
Nothing  was  more  customary  there,  than  for  a 
sturdy  mother  to  bastinado  her  boys,  as  she  called 
them,  after  they  had  grown  to  be  six  feet  high. 


OF    THE    MANHADOE3.  59 

They  were  all  the  better  for  it,  and  made  excellent 
husbands. 

"  When  the  young  man  came  into  the  presence 
of  the  puissant  governor  of  the  New  Netherlands, 
he  appeared  a  comely  person,  tall,  fair  complex- 
ioned,  and  pleasant  of  feature.  He  was  asked 
•whence  he  came,  and  not  having  a  lawyer  at  his 
elbow  to  teach  him  the  noble  art  of  prevarication, 
replied  without  hesitation, 

"  *  From  Pavonia.' 

"  *  How  did  you  get  into  the  city  ?' 

"  '  I  climbed  the  wall,  near  the  company's  wind 
mill/ 

"'And  how  did  you  get  into  the  governor's 
garden  V 

"  *  The  same  way  I  got  out.' 

u<  How  was  that  ?' 

" '  Through  the  gate.' 

*"  *  How  did  you  get  through  the  gate  ?' 

" '  By  unlocking  it.' 

" « With  what  ?' 

"'With  a  key.' 

"  '  Whence  came  that  key  ?' 

"  No  answer. 

" '  Whence  came  that  key  ?' 

" '  I  shall  not  tell.' 

" '  What  induced  you  to  scale  the  wall  and  intrude 
into  the  garden  ?' 

"  <  I  shall  not  tell.' 

"  *  Not  if  you  are  hanged  for  not  telling  ?' 

" '  Not  if  I  am  hanged  for  not  telling.' 


60  THE    LITTLE   DUTCH    SENTINEL 

" '  What  have  you  done  with  the  wings  with 
which,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Jan  Sol,  you 
flew  from  the  wall,  and  through  the  street  to  the 
governor's  garden?' 

"  '  I  never  had  any  wings,  and  never  flew  in  the 
whole  course  of  my  life.' 

"  Here  Jan  Sol  was  called  up,  and  testified  posi 
tively  to  the  wings  and  the  flying.  There  was  now 
great  perplexity  in  the  council,  when  the  keeper  of 
the  windmill  demanded  to  be  heard.  He  stated  he 
remembered  perfectly  well,  that  on  the  two  nights 
referred  to,  he  had  set  his  windmill  going  about  the 
hour  in  which  Jan  Sol  saw  the  spectre  whirl  round 
and  fly  from  the  wall.  There  had  been  a  calm  for 
several  days  previous,  and  the  citizens  began  to  be 
in  want  of  flour.  He  had  therefore  taken  advan 
tage  of  the  rising  of  the  wind  at  the  time,  to  set  his 
mill  going.  A  little  further  inquiry  led  to  the  fact, 
that  the  place  where  the  spectre  scaled  the  wall 
was  exactly  in  a  line  with  the  windmill  and  the  spot 
where  Jan  held  his  watch.  It  was  thus  that  the 
spectre  became  identified  with  the  wings  of  the  mill. 
This  exposition  marvellously  quieted  the  fears  of 
the  good  people  ;  but  there  were  a  number  of  stern 
believers  who  stuck  by  the  little  sentinel,  and  con 
tinued  to  believe  in  the  winged  monster.  As  for 
poor  Jan,  he  looked  ten  times  more  foolish  than 
when  he  used  to  be  caught  emptying  the  canteens 
of  his  comrades  in  his  sleep.  This  elucidation 
being  over,  the  examination  proceeded. 

" '  Did  you  know  of  the  law  making  it  death  for 


OF   THE   MANHADOES.  61 

any  one  to  enter  or  depart  from  the  city  between 
sunset  and  sunrise,  except  through  the  gate  ?' 

"  <  I  did.' 

"  '  What  induced  you  to  violate  it  ?' 

"  < 1  shall  not  tell.' 

"'Was  it  plunder?' 

"  '  I  am  no  thief.' 

11 '  Was  it  treason  against  the  state  ?' 

"  *  I  am  no  traitor.' 

"'  Was  it  mischief?' 

"  '  I  am  not  a  child.' 

" '  Was  it  to  frighten  people  V 

11 '  I  am  no  fool.' 

"  *  What  is  your  name  ?' 

"  '  My  name  is  of  no  consequence — a  man  can 
be  hanged  without  a  name.' 

"  And  this  was  all  they  could  get  out  of  him. 
Various  cross-questions  were  put  to  entrap  him. 
He  replied  to  them  all  with  perfect  freedom  and 
promptitude,  until  they  came  to  his  name,  and  his 
motives  for  intruding  into  the  city  in  violation  of  a 
law  so  severe,  that  none  as  yet  had  ever  been 
known  to  transgress  it.  Then,  as  before,  he  de 
clined  answering. 

"  In  those  early  days,  under  the  Dutch  dynasty, 
trial  by  jury  was  not  in  fashion.  People  were  too 
busy  to  serve  as  jurymen,  if  they  had  been  wanted; 
and  the  decision  of  most  cases  was  left  either  to  the 
burgomasters,  or  if  of  great  consequence,  to  the 
governor  and  council.  Justice  was  severe  and 
prompt,  in  proportion  to  the  dangers  which  sur- 


62  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

rounded  the  early  colonists,  and  the  spirit  of  the 
times  in  which  they  flourished.  They  lived  in  per 
petual  apprehension  ;  and  fear  is  the  father  of  cru 
elty.  The  law  denouncing  death  to  any  person 
who  should  enter  the  city  between  sunset  and  sun 
rise,  except  by  the  gate,  was  considered  as  too  es 
sential  to  the  security  of  the  citizens  to  be  relaxed 
in  favour  of  any  one,  especially  of  a  person  who 
refused  to  tell  either  his  name  or  the  motive  for 
his  intrusion.  By  his  own  admission,  he  was 
guilty  of  the  offence,  and  but  one  course  remained 
for  the  council.  The  young  man  was  sentenced 
to  be  hanged  that  day  week,  and  sent  to  the  fort 
for  safe  keeping  till  the  period  arrived. 

"  That  day  the  daughter  of  the  governor  did  not 
appear  to  grace  the  table  of  his  excellency,  nor  in 
the  management  of  those  little  household  affairs, 
that  are  not  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  daughters  of 
kings.  She  was  ill  with  a  headache,  and  kept  her 
bed.  The  governor  had  no  child  but  her,  and 
though  without  any  great  portion  of  sensibility, 
was  capable  of  all  the  warmth  of  parental  affection. 
Indeed,  all  his  affections  were  centred  in  this  little 
blooming  offspring,  who  was  the  only  being  in  all 
the  New  World  that  carried  a  drop  of  his  blood 
coursing  in  her  blue  veins.  He  was  also  proud  of 
her — so  proud,  that  his  pride  often  got  the  better  of 
his  affection.  She  had  many  admirers — for  she 
was  fair,  wealthy,  and  the  daughter  of  the  greatest 
governor  iffHhe  New  World,  not  excepting  him  of 
Virginia.  It  followed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 


OF    THE    MANHADOES.  63 

she  was  admired,  but  it  was  at  an  awful  distance. 
The  honest  Dutch  swains,  who  had  not  pursued 
the  female  sprite  through  all  the  mazes  of  romance, 
and  learned  how  ofttimes  highborn  ladies  stooped 
to  lads  of  low  degree,  gaped  at  her  at  church,  as  if 
she  had  been  a  sea  serpent.  They  would  as  soon 
have  thought  of  aspiring  to  the  governor's  dignity, 
as  to  the  governor's  daughter.  Besides,  he  was 
one  of  those  absurd  old  blockheads,  who  consider 
nobody  good  enough  for  their  daughters  at  home, 
and  hawk  them  about  Europe,  in  search  of  some 
needy  sprig  of  nobility,  who  will  exchange  his 
mighty  honours  for  bags  of  gold,  and  a  fair,  bloom 
ing,  virtuous  virgin  into  the  bargain.  He  had  sworn 
a  thousand  times,  that  his  Blandina  should  never 
marry  anything  below  a  Dutch  baron." 

"  Was  her  name  Blandina — was  she  my  name 
sake  ?"  interrupted  the  little  granddaughter. 

"  Yes,  girl,  she  was  your  great  great  grandmother, 
and  you  were  christened  after  her,"  said  the  old 
man,  and  proceeded. 

"  This  fear  on  the  part  of  the  young  fellows  of 
New-Amsterdam,  and  this  well-known  determina 
tion  of  the  governor,  kept  all  admirers  at  an  awful 
distance  from  the  young  lady,  who  grew  up  to  the 
age  of  eighteen,  loving  no  one  save  her  father,  now 
that  her  mother  was  no  more ;  and  an  old  black 
woman,  who  had  taken  care  of  her  ever  since  she 
was  a  child.  The  throne  of  her  innocent  bosom 
had  remained  till  then  quite  vacant,  nor  did  she 
know  for  certain  what  it  was  that  made  her  some- 


64  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

times  so  weary  of  the  world,  and  so  tired  of  the 
length  of  the  livelong  sultry  summer  hours.  She 
walked  into  the  garden  to  pluck  the  flowers,  until 
she  became  tired  of  that.  She  strolled  with  her  old 
nurse  into  the  rural  retirement  of  Ladies'  Valley, 
and  the  shady  paths  which  coursed  the  wood  where 
the  Park  is  now,  until  she  became  tired  of  these. 
In  short,  she  became  tired  of  everything,  and  so 
spiritless,  that  her  father  was  not  a  little  alarmed 
for  her  health. 

"  About  this  time  the  governor  was  called  by  im 
portant  political  business  to  the  eastern  frontier, 
and  the  journey  was  expected  to  take  up  several 
days.  During  his  absence,  a  party  was  formed  to 
cross  the  river,  and  spend  the  day  in  rambling  about 
the  romantic  solitudes  of  Weehawk,  then  a  sort  of 
frontier  between  the  white  man  and  the  Indian. 
Blandina  was  pressed  to  accompany  them,  and  at 
last  consented,  although  against  the  will,  not  only 
of  the  governor's  deputy,  but  of  the  governor  him 
self,  who  would  certainly  have  forbidden  it,  had  he 
been  present ;  but  he  was  a  hundred  miles  off,  and 
in  the  absence  of  the  governor  there  was  nobody 
equal  to  the  governor's  daughter.  The  morning 
was  fine,  and  the  party  set  out  as  happy  as  youth 
ful  spirits  and  youthful  anticipations  could  make 
them.  Here  they  rambled  at  will  and  at  random, 
in  groups,  in  pairs,  and  alone,  just  as  it  suited  them ; 
gathering  together  to  take  their  refreshments,  and 
again  separating,  as  chance  or  will  directed  them. 

"  Blandina  had  separated  from  the  others,  and 


OF   THE    MANHADOES.  65 

wandered,  almost  unconsciously,  half  a  mile  from 
the  landing  place  by  herself.  Perhaps  when  she 
set  out,  she  expected  some  of  the  beaux  to  follow, 
but  they  stood  in  such  awe  of  her,  that  not  one  had 
the  temerity  to  offer  his  attendance.  Each  being 
occupied  with  his  own  pursuits  and  reflections,  no 
one  missed  the  young  madam  for  some  time,  until 
their  attention  was  roused  by  a  shriek  at  a  distance 
in  the  wood.  After  a  momentary  pause,  the  shrieks 
were  repeated  in  quick  succession,  and  almost  im 
mediately  succeeded  by  the  report  of  a  gun.  The 
little  group  of  young  people  was  struck  with  dismay, 
and  the  first  impulse  was  to  run  to  the  boats,  and 
escape  into  the  stream.  But  to  do  them  justice, 
this  was  but  an  involuntary  selfishness,  for  the  mo 
ment  they  missed  Blandina,  the  young  men  pre 
pared  to  pursue  in  the  direction  of  the  shrieks  and 
the  gun.  At  this  crisis,  a  figure  darted  swiftly 
from  the  wood,  bearing  the  young  lady  insensible 
in  his  arms,  and  approaching  the  group,  placed  her 
with  her  head  in  the  lap  of  one  of  the  girls,  while 
he  ran  to  the  river,  and  returned  with  some  water 
in  his  hat. 

"  Blandina  soon  came  to  herself,  and  related  that 
she  had  been  seized  by  an  Indian,  and  rescued  by 
the  young  man,  who,  all  the  young  damsels  pres 
ently  discovered,  was  very  handsome.  He  wore 
the  dress  of  a  gentleman  of  that  day,  which,  sooth 
to  say,  would  not  cut  much  of  a  figure  just  now. 
He  was  accoutred  as  a  sportsman,  and  had  in  his 
6* 


66  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

bag  sufficient  evidence  of  his  skill.  It  was  decided 
on  all  hands  that  the  stranger,  having  saved  the  life 
of  Blandina,  or  at  least  rescued  her  from  captivity, 
was  destined  to  be  her  future  husband,  and  that  her 
time  was  now  come.  Such  prophecies  are  very 
apt  to  be  fulfilled.  The  stranger  announced  him 
self  as  the  son  of  the  ancient  and  honourable  Lord 
of  Pavonia,  and  was  blushingly  invited  by  Blandi 
na  to  come  and  receive  the  thanks  of  her  father, 
when  he  should  return  from  the  eastern  fron 
tier.  But  he  only  shook  his  head,  and  replied  with 
a  dubious  smile,  'Are  you  sure  1  shall  be  wel 
come  ?' 

"  From  this  time  Blandina  became  more  languid 
and  thoughtful  than  ever.  When  the  father  returned, 
and  heard  the  story  of  her  straying  into  the  woods, 
and  of  her  deliverance,  he  swore  he  would  reward 
the  gallant  young  man,  like  a  most  liberal  and  pu 
issant  governor.  But  when  afterwards,  on  inquiring 
his  name,  he  found  that  he  was  the  son  of  the  Lord 
of  Pavonia,  he  retracted  his  promise,  and  swore  that 
the  son  was  no  better  than  the  father,  who  was  an 
arrant  splutterkin.  They  had  quarrelled  about 
boundaries ;  his  excellency  claiming  the  whole  of 
the  river  on  the  west  side,  up  to  the  high-water 
mark,  while  the  Lord  of  Pavonia,  whose  territories 
lay  exactly  opposite  the  city  of  New-Amsterdam, 
had  the  temerity  to  set  nets,  and  catch  shad  in  the 
very  middle  of  the  stream.  The  feud  was  bitter 
in  proportion  to  the  dignity  of  the  parties  and 


OF   THE   MANHADOES.  67 

the  importance  of  the  point  at  issue.  The  gov 
ernor  commanded  his  daughter  never  to  mention 
the  name  of  the  splutterkin,  on  pain  of  his  dis 
pleasure. 

"  Rumour,  however,  says  that  the  young  man 
found  means  to  renew  his  acquaintance  with  Blan 
dina,  and  that  though  she  might  never  mention  his 
name  to  her  father,  she  thought  of  him  all  day,  and 
dreamed  about  him  all  night.  After  a  while  the  ru 
mour  died  away,  and  the  people  began  to  think  and 
talk  of  something  else.  Some  of  the  young  men, 
however,  who  happened  to  see  the  culprit  that  had 
dared  to  leap  over  the  wall  against  the  statute, 
thought  he  had  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  youth 
who  had  rescued  Blandina  from  the  Indian.  The 
young  lady,  as  I  said  before,  continued  ill  all  day, 
and  for  several  days  after  the  condemnation  of  the 
spectre  youth,  who  persevered  in  obstinately  refu 
sing  any  disclosure  of  his  name,  or  his  motives  for 
scaling  the  walls  of  New- Amsterdam.  In  the 
mean  time  the  period  of  his  execution  approached  ; 
only  two  days  of  life  now  remained  to  him,  when 
Blandina,  with  an  effort,  determined  to  bring  her  fate 
to  a  crisis  at  once.  She  rose  from  her  bed,  pale 
and  drooping  like  a  lily,  and  tottering  to  her  father's 
study,  sank  at  his  feet. 

" '  Father,'  said  she,  '  will  you  forgive  him  and 
me?' 

"  *  Forgive  thce,  my  daughter;  I  have  nothing  to 
forgive,  so  that  is  settled.  But  who  is  the  other  ?' 


68  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

" '  My  husband.' 

"  '  Thy  husband  !'  exclaimed  the  puissant  gov 
ernor,  starting  up  in  dismay ;  '  and  who  is  he  V 

"  '  The  youth  who  is  sentenced  to  die  the  day 
after  the  morrow.' 

"  '  And  who  is  he — in  the  d — 1's  name,  I  had 
almost  said,'  exclaimed  his  excellency,  in  wrathful 
amazement. 

"  *  He  is  the  son  of  the  Lord  of  Pavonia,'  replied 
she,  hiding  her  face  with  her  hands. 

"  '  And  thou  art  married  to  that  splutterkin  ?' 

"'  Yes,  father.' 

" '  Then  I  shall  take  care  to  unmarry  thee — the 
knot  the  parson  tied  the  hangman  shall  untie  the 
day  after  the  morrow,  or  I'm  no  governor.  But 
who  dared  to  marry  thee  against  my  will  ?' 

" '  Dominie  Curtenius.' 

"  '  He  did — then  the  dominie  shall  hang  by  the 
side  of  the  splutterkin.  Go  to  thy  chamber,  to  thy 
bed,  to  thy  grave,  thou  art  no  daughter  of  mine.' 

"  Poor  Blandina  crawled  to  her  bed,  and  wept 
herself  into  a  temporary  forgetfulness.  The  next 
day  she  was  so  much  worse,  that  the  old  nurse 
declared  she  would  die  before  her  husband.  The 
governor  kept  up  a  good  countenance,  but  his 
heart  was  sorely  beset  by  pity  and  forgiveness, 
which  both  clung  weeping  about  him.  He  went  so 
far  as  to  sound  some  of  the  council  about  pardon 
ing  the  young  man ;  but  one  of  them,  who  was  sus 
pected  of  looking  up  to  the  fair  Blandina,  talked  so 


OF    THE    MANHADOES.  69 

eloquently  about  the  safety  of  the  city  and  the  pub 
lic  good,  that  he  was  fain  to  hold  his  tongue,  and 
shut  himself  up,  for  he  could  not  bear  to  see  his 
daughter. 

"  At  length  the  day  arrived,  big  with  the  fate  of 
poor  Blandina  and  her  unhappy  husband.  She 
sent  to  her  father  for  permission  to  see  him  before 
he  died,  but  the  governor,  after  a  sore  struggle,  de 
nied  her  request. 

"'Then,  indeed,  he  is  no  longer  my  father,' 
cried  Blandina,  and  sinking  upon  her  bed,  covered 
her  head,  as  if  to  shut  out  the  world.  Presently 
the  bell  tolled  the  hour  of  the  sacrifice,  and  its  hol 
low  vibrations  penetrated  the  ears  of  the  mourning 
wife.  In  spite  of  her  weakness,  and  the  endeav 
ours  of  the  old  nurse,  she  started  up,  and  rushing 
towards  the  door  of  her  chamber,  exclaimed,  wildly, 
*  I  will  see  him — I  will  go  and  see  him  die.'  But 
her  strength  failed  her,  and  she  sank  on  the  floor. 
In  the  mean  time  a  scene,  peculiarly  interesting  to 
the  fortunes  of  Blandina,  was  passing  below.  The 
proud,  obdurate,  rich  old  Lord  of  Pavonia,  had 
heard  of  the  capture,  the  condemnation  of  his  only 
son.  For  a  while  his  pride  and  hatred  of  the 
Governor  of  New-Amsterdam  almost  choked  the 
thought  of  entreaty  or  concession  to  his  ancient  en 
emy.  But  as  the  time  approached,  and  he  heard 
of  the  situation  of  his  son,  and  of  his  unfortunate 
wife,  who  had  never  offended  him,  his  heart  grad 
ually  relented.  When  the  morning  arrived,  and  he 


70  THE    LITTLE    DUTCH    SENTINEL 

looked  across  the  smooth  river,  from  the  long  porch 
fronting  his  stately  mansion,  towards  the  spot  where 
his  son  was  about  suffering  an  ignominious  death, 
he  could  restrain  his  feelings  no  longer. 

"  Calling  for  his  boatmen  and  his  barge,  and 
hastily  putting  on  his  cocked  hat  and  sword,  he 
embarked,  crossed  swiftly  over  the  river,  and  land 
ing,  proceeded  directly  to  the  big  house.  He  de 
manded  an  audience  of  the  governor. 

"  '  The  splutterkin  is  here  too — but  let  him  come 
in,  that  I  may  be  satisfied  the  old  dog  is  as  miser 
able  as  myself,'  said  the  governor,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes. 

"  The  Lord  of  Pavonia  entered  with  a  stately 
bow,  which  was  returned  in  as  stately  a  manner 
by  the  governor. 

"'I  come/  said  Pavonia,  'I  come,'  and  his 
voice  became  choked,  '  to  ask  the  life  of  my  son 
at  your  hands.' 

" '  Thy  son  has  broken  the  laws,  and  the  laws 
have  condemned  him  to  death,  justly.' 

" '  I  know  it,'  said  the  other  ;  '  but  what  if  I  pay 
the  price  of  his  ransom  ?' 

"  *  I  am  no  money  higgler.' 

"  '  But  if  I  surrender  the  right  of  the  river  to 
high-water  mark  ?' 

"•'  What !'  said  his  excellency,  pricking  up  his 
ears,  '  wilt  thou  ?  And  the  shad  fishery,  and  the 
diabolical  gill  nets  ?' 

" '  Yea— all— all,'  said  the  other,  '  to  save  the  life 
of  my  only  son.' 


OF    THE    MANHADOES.  71 

"  *  Wilt  thou  sign,  seal,  and  deliver  ?' 

"  *  This  instant — so  I  receive  back  my  boy 
alive.' 

"  '  Stay,  then,  a  moment.' 

"  The  governor  then  hastily  directed  his  bellringer 
to  call  the  council  together,  and  laid  the  proposition 
before  them.  The  concession  was  irresistible,  and 
the  council  decided  to  pardon  the  son,  on  condition 
that  the  father  executed  the  deed  of  relinqnishment. 
He  did  so,  and  the  young  man  was  forth wfth  set  at 
liberty.  It  is  time  for  me  to  retire,"  said  our  good 
grandfather,  "  so  I  must  cut  short  my  story.  The 
meeting  of  the  husband  and  his  faithful  wife  took 
place  without  witnesses,  and  none  was  ever  able  to 
describe  it.  Blandina  speedily  recovered,  and  lived 
to  see  her  children's  children  play  about  the  room 
by  dozens.  The  Lord  of  Pavonia  and  the  Gov 
ernor  of  New  -Amsterdam  continued  a  sort  of  grum 
bling  acquaintance,  and  dined  together  once  a  year, 
when  they  always  quarrelled  about  the  fishery  and 
high- water  mark.  In  process  of  time,  their  respect 
ive  fortunes  became  united  in  the  person  of  the 
winged  monster,  and  formed  a  noble  patrimony, 
some  of  which  I  inherited  with  your  grandmother. 

"  Jan  Sol  underwent  many  a  joke,  good,  bad,  and 
indifferent,  about  the  winged  monster.  But  he  con 
tinued  to  his  dying  day  to  assert  his  solemn  belief, 
that  the  young  Lord  of  Pavonia  and  the  spectre 
were  two  different  persons.  Many  a  time  and  oft 
did  he  frighten  his  wife  and  children  with  the  story, 


72  THE    LITTLE   DUTCH   SENTINEL. 

which  he  improved  every  time  he  told  it,  till  he 
was  at  length  gathered  to  his  fathers,  as  his  fathers 
had  been  gathered  before  him.  He  had  enough 
people  to  keep  him  in  countenance,  for  there  were 
hundreds  of  discreet  citizens,  who  treated  all  doubts 
concerning  the  appearance  of  th£  winged  monster 
with  as  little  toleration  as  do  the  good  folks  of  the 
town  of  Salem  the  wicked  unbelievers  in  the  ex 
istence  of  -the  great  sea  serpent." 


COBUS    YERKS. 


LITTLE  Cobus  Yerks — his  name  was  Jacob,  but 
being  a  Dutchman,  if  not  a  double  Dutchman,  it 
was  rendered  in  English  Cobus — little  Cobus,  I 
say,  lived  on  the  banks  of  Sawmill  River,  where  it 
winds  close  under  the  brow  of  the  Raven  Rock,  an 
enormous  precipice  jutting  out  of  the  side  of  the 
famous  Buttermilk  Hill,  of  which  the  reader  has 
doubtless  often  heard.  It  was  a  rude,  romantic 
spot,  distant  from  the  high  road,  which,  however, 
could  be  seen  winding  up  the  hill  about  three 
miles  off.  His  nearest  neighbours  were  at  the 
same  distance,  and  he  seldom  saw  company  except 
at  night,  when  the  fox  and  the  weasel  sometimes 
beat  up  his  quarters,  and  caused  a  horrible  cackling 
among  the  poultry. 

One  Tuesday,  in  the  month  of  November,  1 793, 
Cobus  had  gone  in  his  wagon  to  the  little  market 
town  on  the  river,  from  whence  the  boats  plied 
weekly  to  New- York,  with  the  produce  of  the 
neighbouring  farmers.  It  was  then  a  pestilent 
little  place  for  running  races,  pitching  quoits,  and 
wrestling  for  gin  slings ;  but  I  must  do  it  the  credit 
to  say,  that  it  is  now  a  very  orderly  town,  sober 
7  D 


74  COBUS  YERKS. 

and  quiet,  save  when  Parson  Mathias,  who  calls 
himself  a  son  of  thunder,  is  praying  in  secret,  so 
as  to  be  heard  across  the  river.  It  so  happened, 
that  of  all  the  days  in  the  year,  this  was  the  very 
day  a  rumour  had  got  into  town,  that  I  myself — 
the  veritable  writer  of  this  true  story — had  been 
poisoned  by  a  dish  of  Souchong  tea,  which  was 
bought  a  great  bargain  of  a  pedler.  There  was 
not  a  stroke  of  work  done  in  the  village  that  day. 
The  shoemaker  abandoned  his  awl ;  the  tailor  his 
goose  ;  the  hatter  his  bowstring ;  and  the  forge  of 
the  blacksmith  was  cool  from  dawn  till  nightfall. 
Silent  was  the  sonorous  harmony  of  the  big  spin 
ning  wheel ;  silent  the  village  song,  and  silent  the 
fiddle  of  Master  Timothy  Canty,  who  passed  his 
livelong  time  in  playing  tuneful  measures,  and 
catching  bugs  and  butterflies.  I  must  say  some 
thing  of  Tim  before  I  go  on  with  my  tale. 

Master  Timothy  was  first  seen  in  the  village, 
one  foggy  morning,  after  a  drizzling,  warm,  show<- 
ery  night,  when  he  was  detected  in  a  garret,  at  the 
extremity  of  the  suburbs ;  and  it  was  the  general 
supposition  that  he  had  rained  down  in  company 
with  a  store  of  little  toads  that  were  seen  hopping 
about,  as  is  usual  after  a  shower.  Around  his 
garret  were  disposed  a  number  of  unframed  pic 
tures,  painted  on  glass,  as  in  the  olden  time,  repre 
senting  the  Four  Seasons,  the  old  King  of  Prussia, 
and  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick,  in  their  sharp- 
pointed  cocked  hats ;  the  fat,  bald-pated  Marquis 
of  Granby,  the  beautiful  Constantia  Phillips,  and 


COBUS    YERKS.  75 

divers  others,  not  forgetting  the  renowned  Kitty 
Fisher,  who,  I  honestly  confess,  was  my  favourite 
among  them  all.  The  whole  village  poured  into 
the  garret  to  gaze  at  these  chef  d'oeuvres  ;  and  it  is 
my  confirmed  opinion,  which  I  shall  carry  to  the 
grave,  that  neither  the  gallery  of  Florence,  Dres 
den,  nor  the  Louvre,  was  ever  visited  by  so  many 
real  amateurs.  Besides  the  pictures,  there  were  a 
great  many  other  curiosities,  at  least  curiosities  to 
the  simple  villagers,  who  were  always  sure  of  being 
welcomed  by  Master  Tim  with  a  jest  and  a  tune. 
Master  Tim,  as  they  came  to  call  him  when 
they  got  to  be  a  little  acquainted,  was  a  rare 
fellow,  such  as  seldom  rains  down  anywhere, 
much  less  on  a  country  village.  He  was  of 
"merry  England,"  as  they  call  it — lucus  a  non 
lucendo — at  least  so  he  said  and  I  believe,  although 
he  belied  his  nativity,  by  being  the  merriest  rogue 
in  the  world,  even  when  the  fog  was  at  the  thick 
est.  In  truth,  he  was  ever  in  a  good  humour,  un 
less  it  might  be  when  a  rare  bug  or  gorgeous  but 
terfly,  that  he  had  followed  through  thick  and  thin, 
escaped  his  net  at  last.  Then,  to  be  sure,  he  was 
apt  to  call  the  recreant  all  the  "vagabonds"  he 
could  think  of.  He  was  a  middle-sized  man,  whose 
person  decreased  regularly,  from  the  crown  of  his 
head  to  the — I  was  going  to  say,  sole  of  his  foot 
— but  it  was  only  to  the  commencement  of  the 
foot,  to  speak  by  the  card.  The  top  of  his  head 
was  broad  and  flat,  and  so  was  his  forehead,  which 
took  up  at  least  two  thirds  of  his  face,  that  tapered 


76  COBUS    YERKS. 

off  suddenly  to  a  chin,  as  sharp  as  the  point  of  a 
triangle.  His  forehead  was  indeed  a  large  field, 
diversified  like  the  country  into  which  he  had 
rained  down,  with  singular  varieties  of  hill  and 
dale,  meadow  and  plough  land,  hedge  and  ditch, 
ravine  and  watercourse.  It  had  as  many  points 
as  a  periwinkle.  The  brow  projected  exuberantly, 
though  not  heavily,  over  a  pair  of  rascally  little 
cross-firing,  twinkling  eyes,  that,  as  the  country 
people  said,  looked  at  least  nine  ways  from  Sun 
day.  His  teeth  were  white  enough,  but  no  two  of 
them  were  fellows.  But  his  head  would  have 
turned  the  brains  of  a  phrenologist,  in  exploring 
the  mysteries  of  its  development ;  it  was  shaped 
somewhat  like  Stony  Point — which  everybody 
knows  as  the  scene  of  a  gallant  exploit  of  Pennsyl- 
vanian  Wayne — and  had  quite  as  many  abrupt 
nesses  and  quizzical  protuberances  to  brag  about. 
At  the  upper  extremity  of  his  forehead,  as  he  as 
sured  us,  he  carried  his  money,  in  the  shape  of  a 
piece  of  silver,  three  inches  long  and  two  wide, 
inserted  there  in  consequence  of  a  fracture  he  got 
by  falling  down  a  precipice  in  hot  chase  of  a  "  vag 
abond  of  a  beetle,"  as  he  was  pleased  to  call  him. 
Descending  towards  terra  firma,  to  wit,  his  feet, 
we  find  his  body  gradually  diminishing  to  his  legs, 
which  were  so  thin,  everybody  wondered  how  they 
could  carry  the  great  head.  But,  like  Captain 
Wattle,  each  had  a  foot  at  the  end  of  it,  full  as 
large  as  the  Black  Dwarf.  It  is  so  long  ago  that 
I  almost  forget  his  costume.  All  I  recollect  is, 


COBUS    YERKS.  77 

'that  he  never  wore  boots  or  pantaloons,  but  exhib 
ited  his  spindles  in  all  weathers  in  worsted  stock 
ings,  and  his  feet  in  shoes,  gorgeously  caparisoned 
in  a  pair  of  square  silver  buckles,  the  only  pieces 
of  finery  he  ever  displayed. 

1  In  the  merry  months  of  spring  and  summer,  and 
early  in  autumn,  Master  Timothy  was  most  of  his 
time  chasing  bugs  and  butterflies  about  the  fields, 
to  the  utter  confusion  of  the  people,  who  wondered 
what  he  could  want  with  such  trumpery.  Being 
a  genius  and  an  idler  by  profession,  I  used  to 
accompany  him  frequently  in  these  excursions,  for 
he  was  fond  of  me,  and  called  me  vagabond  oftener 
than  he  did  anybody  else.  He  had  a  little  net  of 
green  gauze,  so  constructed  as  to  open  and  shut  as 
occasion  required,  to  entrap  the  small  fry,  and  a 
box  with  a  cork  bottom,  upon  which  he  impaled 
his  prisoners  with  true  scientific  barbarity,  by  stick 
ing  a  pin  in  them.  Thus  equipped,  this  Don 
Quixote  of  butterfly  catchers,  with  myself  his 
faithful  esquire,  would  sally  out  of  a  morning  into 
the  clovered  meadows  and  flower-dotted  fields,  over 
brook,  through  tangled  copse  and  briery  dell,  in 
chase  of  these  gentlemen  commoners  of  nature. 
Ever  and  anon,  as  he  came  upon  some  little  retired 
nook,  where  nature,  like  a  modest  virgin,  shrouded 
her  beauties  from  the  common  view — a  rocky  glen, 
romantic  cottage,  rustic  bridge,  or  brawling  stream, 
he  would  take  out  his  little  portfolio,  and  pointing 
me  to  some  conspicuous  station  to  animate  his 
little  landscape,  sketch  it  and  me  together,  with  a 
7* 


78  COBUS    YERKS. 

mingled  taste  and  skill  I  have  never  since  seen  sur 
passed.  I  figure  in  all  his  landscapes,  although  he 
often  called  me  a  vagabond,  because  he  could  not 
drill  me  into  picturesque  attitudes.  But  the  finest 
sport  for  me,  was  to  watch  him  creeping  slily  after 
a  humming  bird,  the  object  of  his  most  intense  de 
sires,  half  buried  in  the  bliss  of  the  dewy  honey 
suckle,  and  just  as  he  was  on  the  point  of  covering 
it  with  his  net,  to  see  the  little  vagrant  flit  away 
with  a  swiftness  that  made  it  invisible.  It  was  an 
invaluable  sight  to  behold  Master  Timothy  stand 
wiping  his  continent  of  a  forehead,  and  blessing  the 
bird  for  a  "  little  vagabond."  These  were  happy 
times,  and  at  this  moment  I  recall  them,  I  hardly 
know  why,  with  a  melancholy  yet  pleasing  delight. 
During  the  winter  season,  Master  Timothy  was 
usually  employed  in  the  daytime  painting  pleasure 
sleighs,  which,  at  that  period,  it  was  the  fashion 
among  the  farmers  to  have  as  fine  as  fiddles.  Tim 
othy  was  a  desperate  hand  at  a  true  lover's  knot,  a 
cipher,  or  a  wreath  of  flowers ;  and  as  for  a  blazing 
sun  !  he  painted  one  for  the  squire,  that  was  seri 
ously  suspected  of  melting  all  the  snow  in  ten 
leagues  round.  He  would  go  ten  or  a  dozen  miles 
to  paint  a  sleigh,  and  always  carried  his  materials 
on  a  board  upon  the  top  of  his  head — it  was  before 
the  invention  of  high-crowned  hats.  Destiny  had 
decreed  he  should  follow  this  trade,  and  nature  had 
provided  him  a  head  on  purpose.  It  was  as  flat 
as  a  pancake.  In  the  long  winter  evenings  it  was 
his  pleasure  to  sit  by  the  fireside,  and  tell  enor- 


COBTJS    YERKS.  79 

mous  stories  to  groups  of  horrorstruck  listeners. 
I  never  knew  a  man  that  had  been  so  often  robbed 
on  Hounslow  Heath,  or  had  seen  so  many  ghosts 
in  his  day,  as  Master  Tim  Canty.  Peace  to  his 
ashes  !  he  is  dead,  and,  if  report  is  to  be  credited, 
is  sometimes  seen  on  moonlight  nights  in  the  church 
yard,  with  his  little  green  gauze  net,  chasing  the 
ghosts  of  moths  and  beetles,  as  he  was  wont  in 
past  times. 

But  it  is  high  time  to  return  to  my  story ;  for  I 
candidly  confess  I  never  think  of  honest  Tim  that 
I  don't  grow  as  garrulous  as  an  old  lady,  talking 
about  the  revolution  and  the  Yagers.  In  all  coun 
try  villages  I  ever  saw  or  heard  of,  whenever  any 
thing  strange,  new,  horrible,  or  delightful  happens, 
or  is  supposed  to  have  happened,  all  the  male  in 
habitants,  not  to  say  female,  make  for  the  tavern 
as  fast  as  possible,  to  hear  the  news,  or  tell  the 
news,  and  get  at  the  bottom  of  the  affair.  I  don't 
deny  that  truth  is  sometimes  to  be  found  at  the 
bottom  of  a  well ;  but  in  these  cases  she  is  gener 
ally  found  at  the  bottom  of  the  glass.  Be  this  as 
it  may — when  Cobus  Yerks  looked  into  the  village 
inn,  just  to  say  How  d'ye  do  to  the  landlady,  he 
beheld  a  party  of  some  ten  or  a  dozen  people,  dis 
cussing  the  affair  of  my  being  poisoned  with  Sou 
chong  tea,  which  by  this  time  had  been  extended 
to  the  whole  family,  not  one  of  whom  had  been 
left  alive  by  the  bloody-minded  damsel,  Rumour. 

Cobus  could  not  resist  the  fascination  of  these 
horrors.  He  edged  himself  in  among  them,  and 


80  COBTJS   YERKS. 

after  a  little  while  they  were  joined  by  Master 
Timothy,  who,  on  hearing  of  the  catastrophe  of  his 
old  fellow-labourer  in  butterfly  catching,  had  strode 
over  a  distance  of  two  miles  to  our  house  to  ascer 
tain  the  truth  of  the  story.  He  of  course  found  it 
was  a  mistake,  and  had  now  returned  with  a  nefa 
rious  design  of  frightening  them  all  out  of  their 
wits  by  a  story  of  more  than  modern  horrors.  By 
this  time  it  was  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  and  Cobus 
had  a  long  way  to  travel  before  he  could  reach 
home.  He  had  been  so  fascinated  with  the  story, 
and  the  additions  every  moment  furnished  by 
various  new  comers,  that  he  forgot  the  time  till  it 
began  to  grow  quite  dark ;  and  then  he  was  so 
horrorstruck  at  what  he  had  heard,  that  he  grew 
fast  to  his  chair  in  the  chimney  corner,  where  he 
had  intrenched  himself.  It  was  at  this  moment 
Master  Timothy  came  in  with  the  design  afore 
said. 

The  whole  party  gathered  round  him  to  know  if 
the  story  of  the  poisoning  was  true.  Tim  shook 
his  head,  and  the  shaking  of  such  a  head  was 
awful.  "What!  all  the  family?"  cried  they,  with 
one  voice.  "  Every  soul  of  them,"  cried  Tim,  in 
a  hollow  tone — "  every  soul  of  them,  poor  crea 
tures  ;  and  not  only  they,  but  all  the  cattle,  horses, 
pigs,  ducks,  chickens,  cats,  dogs,  and  guinea  hens, 
are  poisoned."  "What!  with  Souchong  tea?" 
"  No — with  coloquintida."  Coloquintida  !  the  very 
name  was  enough  to  poison  a  whole  generation  of 
Christian  people.  "  But  the  black  bulldog  !"  cried 


COBTJS   YERKS.  81 

Timothy,  in  a  sepulchral  voice,  that  curdled  the 
very  marrow  of  their  innermost  bones.  "  What 
of  the  black  bulldog  ?"  quoth  little  Cobus.  "  Why, 
they  do  say  that  he  came  to  life  again  after  laying 
six  hours  stone  dead,  and  ran  away  howling  like  a 
d — 1  incarnate."  "  A  d — 1  incarnate  !"  quoth  Co- 
bus,  who  knew  no  more  about  the  meaning  of  that 
fell  word  than  if  it  had  been  Greek.  He  only 
knew  it  was  something  very  terrible.  "  Yes,"  re 
plied  Timothy ;  "  and  what's  more,  I  saw  where 
he  jumped  over  the  barnyard  gate,  and  there  was 
the  print  of  a  cloven  foot,  as  plain  as  the  daylight 
this  blessed  minute."  It  was  as  dark  as  pitch,  but 
the  comparison  was  considered  proof  positive.  "  A 
cloven  foot !"  quoth  Cobus,  who  squeezed  himself 
almost  into  the  oven,  while  the  thought  of  going 
home  all  alone  in  the  dark,  past  the  churchyard, 
the  old  grave  at  the  cross  roads,  and,  above  all,  the 
spot  where  John  Ryer  was  hanged  for  shooting  the 
sheriff,  smote  upon  his  heart,  and  beat  it  into  a 
jelly — at  least  it  shook  like  one.  What  if  he 
should  meet  the  big  black  dog,  with  his  cloven 
foot,  who  howled  like  a  d — 1  incarnate  !  The 
thought  was  enough  to  wither  the  heart  of  a  stone. 
Cobus  was  a  little,  knock-kneed,  broad-faced, 
and  broad-shouldered  Dutchman,  who  believed  all 
things,  past,  present,  and  to  come,  concerning 
spooks,  goblins,  and  fiends  of  all  sorts  and  sizes, 
from  a  fairy  to  a  giant.  Tim  Canty  knew  him  of 
old,  for  he  had  once  painted  a  sleigh  for  him,  and 
frightened  Cobus  out  of  six  nights'  sleep,  by  the 
D  3 


82 


COBUS    YERKS. 


story  of  a  man  that  he  once  saw  murdered  by  a 
highwayman  on  Hounslow  Heath.  Tim  followed 
up  the  story  of  the  black  dog  with  several  others, 
each  more  appalling  than  the  first,  till  he  fairly 
lifted  Cobus's  wits  off  the  hinges,  aided  as  he  was 
by  certain  huge  draughts  upon  a  pewter  mug,  with 
which  the  little  man  reinforced  his  courage  at  short 
intervals.  He  was  a  true  disciple  of  the  doctrine 
that  spirit  and  courage,  that  is  to  say,  whiskey  and 
valour  were  synonymous. 

It  now  began  to  wax  late  in  the  evening,  and  the 
company  departed,  not  one  by  one,  but  in  pairs,  to 
their  respective  homes.  The  landlady,  a  bitter 
root  of  a  woman,  and  more  than  a  match  for  half 
the  men  in  the  village,  began  to  grow  sleepy,  as  it 
was  now  no  longer  worth  her  while  to  keep  awake. 
Gradually  all  became  quiet  within  and  without  the 
house,  except  now  and  then  the  howling  of  a  wan 
dering  cur,  and  the  still  more  doleful  moaning  of 
the  winds,  accompanied  by  the  hollow  thumpings 
of  the  waves,  as  they  dashed  on  the  rocky  shores 
of  the  river  that  ran  hard  by.  Once,  and  once 
only,  the  cat  mewed  in  the  garret,  and  almost 
caused  Cobus  to  jump  out  of  his  skin.  The  land 
lady  began  to  complain  that  it  grew  late,  and  she 
was  very  sleepy;  but  Cobus  would  take  no  hints, 
manfully  keeping  his  post  in  the  chimney  corner, 
till  at  last  the  good  woman  threatened  to  call  up 
her  two  negroes,  and  have  him  turned  neck  and 
heels  out  of  doors.  For  a  moment  the  fear  of  the 
big  black  dog  with  the  cloven  foot  was  mastered 


COBUS    YERKS.  83 

by  the  fear  of  the  two  stout  black  men,  and  the 
spirit  moved  Cobus  towards  the  door,  lovingly 
hugging  the  stone  jug,  which  he  had  taken  care  to 
have  plentifully  replenished  with  the  creature.  He 
sallied  forth  in  those  graceful  curves,  which  are 
affirmed  to  constitute  the  true  lines  of  beauty ;  and 
report  says  that  he  made  a  copious  libation  of  the 
contents  of  the  stone  jug  outside  the  door,  ere  the 
landlady,  after  assisting  to  untie  his  patient  team, 
had  tumbled  him  into  his  wagon.  This  was  the 
last  that  was  seen  of  Cobus  Yerks. 

That  night  his  faithful,  though  not  very  obedient 
little  wife,  whom  he  had  wedded  at  Tappan,  on  the 
famous  sea  of  that  name,  and  who  wore  a  cap 
trimmed  with  pink  ribands  when  she  went  to 
church  on  Sundays,  fell  asleep  in  her  chair,  as  she 
sat  anxiously  watching  his  return.  About  mid 
night  she  waked,  but  she  saw  not  her  beloved  Co- 
bus,  nor  heard  his  voice  calling  her  to  open  the 
door.  But  she  heard  the  raven,  or  something  very 
like  it,  screaming  from  the  Raven  Rock,  the  foxes 
barking  about  the  house,  the  wind  whistling  and 
moaning  among  the  rocks  and  trees  of  the  moun 
tain  side,  and  a  terrible  commotion  among  the  poul 
try,  Cobus  having  taken  the  great  house  dog  with 
him  that  day.  Again  she  fell  asleep,  and  waked 
not  until  the  day  was  dawning.  She  opened  the 
window,  and  looked  forth  upon  as  beautiful  an  au 
tumnal  morning  as  ever  blessed  this  blessed  coun 
try.  The  yellow  sun  threw  a  golden  lustre  over 
the  many-tinted  woods,  painted  by  the  cunning 


84  COBUS    YERKS. 

hand  of  Nature  with  a  thousand  varied  dies ;  the 
smoke  of  the  neighbouring  farmhouses  rose  straight 
upward  to  heaven  in  the  pure  atmosphere,  and  the 
breath  of  the  cattle  mingled  its  warm  vapour  with 
the  invisible  clearness  of  the  morning  air.  But 
what  were  all  these  beauties  of  delicious  nature  to 
the  eye  and  the  heart  of  the  anxious  wife,  who  saw 
that  Cobus  was  not  there  ? 

She  went  forth  to  the  neighbours  to  know  if  they 
had  seen  him,  and  they  good-naturedly  sallied  out 
to  seek  him  on  the  road  that  led  from  the  village  to 
his  home.  But  no  traces  of  him  could  be  found, 
and  they  were  returning  with  bad  news  for  his  anx 
ious  wife,  when  they  bethought  themselves  of  turn 
ing  into  a  byroad  that  led  to  a  tavern,  that  used 
whilome  to  attract  the  affections  of  honest  Cobus, 
and  where  he  was  sometimes  wont  to  stop  and  wet 
his  whistle. 

They  had  not  gone  far,  when  they  began  to  per 
ceive  traces  of  the  lost  traveller,  First  his  broad- 
brimmed  hat,  which  he  had  inherited  through  di 
vers  generations,  and  which  he  always  wore  when 
he  went  to  the  village,  lay  grovelling  in  the  dirt, 
crushed  out  of  all  goodly  shape  by  the  wheel  of  his 
wagon,  which  had  passed  over  it.  Next,  they  en 
countered  the  backboard  of  the  wagon,  ornamented 
with  C.  Y.  in  a  true  lover's  knot,  painted  by  Tim 
Canty,  in  his  best  style — and  anon  a  little  farther, 
a  shoe,  that  was  identified  as  having  belonged  to 
our  hero,  by  having  upward  of  three  hundred  hob 
nails  in  the  sole,  for  he  was  a  saving  little  fellow, 


COBUS    YERKS.  85 

though  he  would  wet  his'  whistle  sometimes,  in 
spite  of  all  his  wife  and  the  minister  could  say. 
Proceeding  about  a  hundred  rods  farther,  to  a  sud 
den  turn  of  the  road,  they  encountered  the  wagon, 
or  rather  the  fragments  of  it,  scattered  about  and 
along  in  the  highway,  and  the  horses  standing  qui 
etly  against  a  fence,  into  which  they  had  run  the 
pole  of  the  wagon . 

But  what  was  become  of  the  unfortunate  driver, 
no  one  could  discover.  At  length,  after  searching 
some  time,  they  found  him  lying  in  a  tuft  of  black 
berry  briars,  amid  the  fragments  of  the  stone  jug, 
lifeless  and  motionless.  His  face  was  turned  up 
ward,  and  streaked  with  seams  of  blood ;  his  clothes 
torn,  bloody,  and  disfigured  with  dirt ;  and  his  pipe, 
that  he  carried  in  the  buttonholes  of  his  waistcoat, 
shivered  all  to  naught.  They  made  their  way  to 
the  body,  full  of  sad  forebodings,  and  shook  it,  to  see 
if  any  life  remained.  But  it  was  all  in  vain — there 
seemed  neither  sense  nor  motion  there.  "May 
be,  after  all,"  said  one,  "  he  is  only  in  a  swound — 
here  is  a  little  drop  of  the  spirits  left  in  the  bottom 
of  the  jug — let  us  hold  it  to  his  nose,  it  may  bring 
him  to  life." 

The  experiment  was  tried,  and  wonderful  to  tell, 
in  a  moment  or  two,  Cobus,  opening  his  eyes,  and 
smacking  his  lips  with  peculiar  satisfaction,  ex 
claimed,  "  Some  o'  that,  boys  !"  A  little  shaking 
brought  him  to  himself,  when  being  asked  to  give 
an  account  of  the  disaster  of  his  wagon  and  his 
stone  jug,  he  at  first  shook  his  head  mysteriously,  and 
8 


86  COBUS    YERKS. 

demurred.  Being,  however  taken  to  the  neighbour 
ing  tavern,  and  comforted  a  little  with  divers  re 
freshments,  he  was  again  pressed  for  his  story, 
when,  'assuming  a  face  of  awful  mystification,  he 
began  as  follows  : — 

"You  must  know,"  said  Cobus,  "I  started 
rather  late  from  town,  for  I  had  been  kept  there  by 
— by  business  ;  and  because,  you  see,  I  was  wait 
ing  for  the  moon  to  rise,  that  I  might  find  my  way 
home  in  the  dark  night.  But  it  grew  darker  and 
darker,  unjtil  you  could  not  see  your  hand  before 
your  face,  and  at  last  I  concluded  to  set  out,  con 
sidering  I  was  as  sober  as  a  deacon,  and  my  horses 
could  see  their  way  blindfold.  I  had  not  gone  quite 
round  the  corner,  where  John  Ryer  was  hung  for 
shooting  Sheriff  Smith,  when  I  heard  somebody 
coming,  pat,  pat,  pat,  close  behind  my  wagon.  I 
looked  back,  but  I  could  see  nothing,  it  was  so 
dark.  By-and-by,  I  heard  it  again,  louder  and 
louder,  and  then  I  confess  I  began  to  be  a  little 
afeard.  So  I  whipped  up  my  horses  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  or  so,  and  then  let  them  walk  on.  I  listened, 
and  pat,  pat,  pat,  went  the  noise  again.  I  began  to 
be  a  good  deal  frightened,  but  considering  it  could 
be  nothing  at  all,  I  thought  I  might  as  well  take  a 
small  dram,  as  the  night  was  rather  chilly,  and  I 
began  to  tremble  a  little  with  the  cold.  I  took  but 
a  drop,  as  I  am  a  living  sinner,  and  then  went  on 
quite  gayly  ;  but  pat,  pat,  pat,  went  the  footsteps 
ten  times  louder  and  faster  than  ever.  And  then ! 
then  I  looked  back,  and  saw  a  pair  of  saucer  eyes 


COBUS    YERKS.  87 

just  at  the  tail  of  my  wagon,  as  big  and  as  bright  as 
the  mouths  of  a  fiery  furnace,  dancing  up  and  down 
in  the  air  like  two  stage  lamps  in  a  rough  road. 

"  By  gosh,  boys,  but  you  may  depend  I  was 
scared  now  !  I  took  another  little  dram,  and  then 
made  the  whip  fly  about  the  ears  of  old  Pepper  and 
Billy,  who  cantered  away  at  a  wonderful  rate, 
considering.  Presently,  bang !  something  heavy 
jumped  into  the  wagon,  as  if  heaven  and  earth  were 
coming  together.  I  looked  over  my  shoulder,  and 
the  great  burning  eyes  were  within  half  a  yard  of 
my  back.  The  creature  was  so  close  that  I  felt  its 
breath  blowing  upon  me,  and  it  smelled  for  all  one 
exactly  like  brimstone.  I  should  have  jumped  out 
of  the  wagon,  but,  somehow  or  other,  I  could  not 
stir,  for  I  was  bewitched  as  sure  as  you  live.  All 
I  could  do  was  to  bang  away  upon  Pepper  and 
Billy,  who  rattled  along  at  a  great  rate  up  hill  and 
down,  over  the  rough  roads,  so  that  if  I  had  not 
been  bewitched,  I  must  have  tumbled  out  to  a  cer 
tainty.  When  I  came  to  the  bridge,  at  old  Mang- 
ham's,  the  black  dog,  for  I  could  see  something 
black  and  shaggy  under  the  goggle  eyes,  all  at  once 
jumped  up,  and  seated  himself  close  by  me  on  the 
bench,  snatched  the  whip  and  reins  out  of  my  hands 
like  lightning.  Then  looking  me  in  the  face,  and 
nodding,  he  whispered  something  in  my  ear,  and 
lashed  away  upon  Pepper  and  Billy,  till  they 
seemed  to  fly  through  the  air.  From  that  time  I 
began  to  lose  my  wits  by  degrees,  till  at  last  the 
smell  of  brimstone  overpowered  me,  and  I  remem- 


88  COBUS    YERKS. 

ber  nothing  till  you  found  me  this  morning  in  the 
briars." 

Here  little  Cobus  concluded  his  story,  which  he 
repeated  with  several  variations  and  additions  to 
his  wife,  when  he  got  home.  That  good  woman, 
who,  on  most  occasions,  took  the  liberty  of  lectur 
ing  her  good  man,  whenever  he  used  to  be  belated 
in  his  excursions  to  the  village,  was  so  struck  with 
this  adventure,  that  she  omitted  her  usual  exhorta 
tion,  and  ever  afterwards  viewed  him  as  one  enno 
bled  by  supernatural  communication,  submitting  to 
him  as  her  veritable  lord  and  master.  Some 
people,  who  pretend  to  be  so  wise  that  they 
won't  believe  the  evidence  of  their  senses  when  it 
contradicts  their  reason,  affected  to  be  incredulous, 
and  hinted  that  the  goggle  eyes,  and  the  brimstone 
breath,  appertained  to  Cobus  Yerks's  great  house 
dog,  which  had  certainly  followed  him  that  day  to 
the  village,  and  was  found  quietly  reposing  by  his 
master,  in  the  tuft  of  briars.  But  Cobus  was  ever 
exceedingly  wroth  at  this  suggestion,  and  being  a 
sturdy  little  brusier,  had  knocked  down  one  or  two 
of  these  unbelieving  sinners,  for  venturing  to  assert 
that  the  contents  of  the  stone  jug  were  at  the  bot 
tom  of  the  whole  business.  After  that,  everybody 
believed  it,  and  it  is  now  for  ever  incorporated  with 
the  marvellous  legends  of  the  renowned  Butter 
milk  Hill. 


A    STRANGE    BIRD 


NIEUW-AMSTERDAM. 


IN  the  year  of  the  building  of  the  city  (which 
in  Latin  is  called  Anno  Urba  Conditur)  fifty-five, 
to  wit,  the  year  of  our  Lord  1 678,  there  appeared 
a  phenomenon  in  the  street  of  Nieuw-Amsterdam 
called  Garden-street.  This  was  a  youthful  stran 
ger,  dressed  in  the  outlandish  garb  of  the  English 
beyond  the  Varsche  river,  towards  the  east,  where 
those  interlopers  have  grievously  trespassed  on 
the  territories  of  their  high  mightinesses,  the  states 
general.  Now,  be  it  known  that  this  was  the  first 
stranger  from  foreign  parts  that  ever  showed  him 
self  in  the  streets  of  Nieuw-Amsterdam,  which  had 
never  been  before  invaded  in  like  manner.  Where 
at  the  good  people  were  strangely  perplexed  and 
confounded,  seeing  they  could  by  no  means  divine 
his  business.  The  good  yffrouws  did  gaze  at  him 
as  he  passed  along  by  their  stoops,  and  the  idle 
boys  followed  him  wheresoever  he  went,  shouting 
and  hallooing,  to  the  great  disturbance  of  the 
peaceable  and  orderly  citizens,  of  whom  it  was 
once  said  that  the  barking  of  a  cur  disturbed  the 
whole  city. 
8*  ' 


90  A    STRANGE    BIRD 

But  the  stranger  took  not  the  least  heed  of  the 
boys  or  their  hallooings,  but  passed  straight  on 
ward,  looking  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left, 
which  circumstance  seemed  exceedingly  perplex 
ing  to  the  good  yffrouws,  seeing  it  savoured  of 
having  no  curiosity  to  see  or  be  seen,  which  to 
them  appeared  altogether  out  of  nature.  The 
stranger  proceeded  in  a  sort  of  rigmarole  way, 
seeming  little  to  care  whither  he  went,  all  along 
by  the  Stadt  Huys,  the  East  and  West  Docks,  the 
Bendeel  or  Battery,  the  Rondeels,  and  I  can't  tell 
where  else.  All  the  while  he  seemed  to  take 
no  notice  of  anything,  which  everybody  thought 
strange,  since  he  appeared  as  if  he  had  no  other 
business  than  to  see  the  city. 

In  the  course  of  his  marvellous  peregrinations,  he 
at  length  came  to  the  great  building,  which,  being 
the  only  house  of  public  resort,  was  called,  by  way 
of  eminence,  the  City  Tavern.  Here  he  stopped 
all  of  a  sudden,  so  abruptly,  that  little  Brom,  son  of 
Alderman  Botherwick,  who  was  close  at  his  heels, 
did  run  right  upon  his  hinder  parts,  and  almost 
knocked  him  down,  before  he  could  stop  himself. 
Whereupon  the  stranger  turned  round  and  gave  him 
a  look,  whether  of  menace  or  good  will,  was  long 
after  disputed  by  divers  people  that  saw  him.  Be 
this  as  it  may,  the  stranger,  on  seeing  the  tavern, 
nodded  his  head,  and  went  straight  up  the  steps 
into  the  bar-room,  where  he  courteously  saluted 
the  landlord,  good  Mynheer  Swighauser,  by  pulling 
off  his  hat,  saying,  at  the  same  time,  nothing ;  which 


IN    NIEUW-AMSTERDAM.  91 

njynheer  thought  rather  mighty  particular.  He 
asked  the  interloping  stranger  what  he  would 
please  to  have ;  for  he  was  a  polite  man  enough, 
except  to  losel  beggars,  and  that  sort  of  vermin. 
The  stranger  hereupon  said  nothing,  but  addressed 
Mynheer  Swighauser  in  a  figurative  style,  which 
all  landlords  comprehend.  He  pulled  out  a  purse, 
and  showed  him  the  money,  at  the  sight  of  which 
mynheer  made  him  a  reverend  bow,  and  ushered 
him  into  the  Half  Moon,  so  called  from  being  orna 
mented  with  a  gallant  picture  of  the  vessel  of  that 
name,  in  which  good  Master  Hendrick  Hudson  did 
first  adventure  to  the  discovery  of  the  Manhadoes. 
It  was  the  best  room  in  the  house,  and  always 
reserved  by  Mynheer  Swighauser  for  guests  that 
carried  full  purses. 

Having  so  done,  mynheer  courteously  asked  the 
stranger  what  he  would  please  to  have  for  dinner, 
it  being  now  past  eleven  o'clock,  and  the  dinner 
hour  nigh.  Whereat  the  stranger  looked  hard  at 
him,  and  said  not  a  word.  Mynheer  thereupon 
raised  his  voice  so  loud,  that  he  frightened  divers 
tame  pigeons,  sitting  on  their  coop  in  the  yard,  who 
rose  into  the  air  out  of  sight,  and,  it  is  affirmed, 
never  returned  again.  The  stranger  answered  not 
a  word,  as  before. 

"  Wat  donder  is  dat  ?"  exclaimed  mynheer ;  "  a 
man  with  such  a  full  purse  might  venture  to  call 
for  his  dinner,  I  think." 

However,  when  Mynheer  Swighauser  and  his 
family  sat  down  to  their  dinner  at  twelve  o'clock, 


92  A   STRANGE    BIRD 

the  stranger,  without  any  ceremony,  sat  down  with 
them,  taking  the  chair  from  time  immemorial  ap 
propriated  to  mynheer's  youngest  child,  who  was 
thereat  so  mortally  offended,  that  she  set  up  a  great 
cry,  and  refused  to  eat  any  dinner.  Yffrouw  Swig- 
hauser  looked  hard  and  angry  at  the  stranger,  who 
continued  to  eat  as  if  it  were  his  last,  saying  no 
thing  all  the  while,  and  paying  no  more  heed  to  the 
little  child  than  he  did  to  the  hallooing  of  the  boys 
or  mynheer's  courteous  interrogatories. 

When  he  had  finished,  he  took  up  his  hat,  and 
went  forth  on  a  peregrination,  from  which  he  did 
not  return  until  it  was  nigh  dusk.  Mynheer  was 
in  tribulation  lest  he  should  lose  the  price  of  his 
dinner,  but  the  yffrouw  said  she  did  not  care  if  she 
never  saw  such  a  dumb  noddy  again.  The  stran 
ger  ate  a  huge  supper  in  silence,  smoked  his  pipe, 
and  went  to  bed  at  eight  o'clock,  at  which  hour 
mynheer  always  shut  up  the  front  of  his  house, 
leaving  the  back  door  open  to  the  roistering  youn- 
kers,  who  came  there  to  carouse  every  night,  and 
play  at  all-fours.  Soon  after  the  stranger  retired, 
there  was  heard  a  great  noise  in  his  room,  which 
so  excited  the  curiosity  of  Yffrouw  Swighauser, 
that  she  took  a  landlady's  liberty,  and  went  and 
listened  at  the  door.  It  proved  only  the  stranger 
playing  a  concert  with  Morpheus,  on  the  nasal 
trumpet,  whereupon  the  yffrouw  went  away,  ex 
claiming, 

i  "  The  splutterkin  !  he  makes  noise  enough  in  his 
sleep,  if  he  can't  when  he  is  awake." 


IN    NIEUW-AMSTERDAM.  93 

That  night  the  good  city  of  Nieuw- Amsterdam 
[•was  im-pestered  with  divers  strange  noises,  griev 
ous  mishaps,  and  unaccountable  appearances.  The 
noises  were  such  as  those  who  heard  them  could 
not  describe,  and,  for  that  reason,  I  hope  the  cour 
teous  reader  will  excuse  me,  if  I  say  nothing  more 
about  them  ;  the  mishaps  were  of  certain  mysteri 
ous  broken  heads,  black  eyes,  and  sore  bruises  re 
ceived,  as  was  affirmed,  from  unknown  assailants ; 
and  the  mysterious  appearances  consisted  in  lights 
moving  about,  at  midnight,  in  the  Ladies'  Valley, 
since  called  Maiden  Lane,  which  might  have 
passed  for  lightning  bugs,  only  people  that  saw 
them  said  they  were  as  big  as  jack-a-lanterns.  Be 
sides  these,  there  were  seen  divers  stars  shooting 
about  in  the  sky,  and  an  old  yffrouw,  being  called 
out  after  midnight  on  a  special  occasion,  did  certi 
fy  that  she  saw  two  stars  fighting  with  each  other, 
and  making  the  sparks  fly  at  every  blow.  Other 
strange  things  happened  on  that  memorable  night, 
which  alarmed  the  good  citizens,  and  excited  the 
vigilance  of  the  magistrates. 

The  next  night,  matters  were  still  worse.  The 
lights  in  the  Ladies'  Valley  were  larger  and  more 
numerous;  the  noises  waxed  more  alarming  and 
unaccountable ;  and  the  stranger,  while  he  contin 
ued  to  act  and  say  nothing  all  day,  snored  louder 
than  ever.  At  length,  Yffrouw  Swighauser,  being 
thereunto,  as  I  suspect,  instigated  by  a  stomachful 
feeling,  on  account  of  the  stranger's  having  got  pos 
session  of  her  favourite's  seat,  and  set  her  a  crying, 


94  A    STRANGE    BIRD 

did  prevail,  by  divers  means,  of  which,  thank  Hea 
ven,  I  have  little  experience,  being  a  bachelor,  to 
have  her  husband  go  and  make  a  complaint  against 
the  stranger,  as  having  some  diabolical  agency  in 
these  matters. 

"  Wat  donner  meen  je,  wife?"  quoth  mynheer ; 
"  what  have  I  to  say  against  the  man  ?  He  is  a 
very  civil,  good  sort  of  a  body,  and  never  makes 
any  disturbance  except  in  his  sleep." 

"  Ay,  there  it  is,"  replied  the  yffrouw.  "  I  never 
heard  such  a  snore  in  all  my  life.  Why,  it's  no 
more  like  yours  than  the  grunt  of  a  pig  is  to  the 
roar  of  a  lion.  It's  unnatural." 

Mynheer  did  not  like  this  comparison,  and  an 
swered  and  said,  "  By  St.  Johannes  de  Dooper^ 
whoever  says  I  snore  like  a  pig  is  no  better  than  a 
goose." 

The  yffrouw  had  a  point  to  gain,  or  Mynheer 
Swighauser  would  have  repented  this  rejoinder. 

"  My  duck-a-deary,"  said  she,  "  whoever  says 
you  don't  snore  like  a  fiddle  has  no  more  ear  for 
music  than  a  mole — I  mean  a  squeaking*  fiddle," 
quoth  she,  aside. 

Without  further  prosecuting  this  dialogue,  let  it 
suffice  to  say  that  the  yffrouw  at  length  wrought 
upon  mynheer  to  present  the  stranger  unto  Alder 
man  Schlepevalcker  as  a  mysterious  person,  who 
came  from — nobody  knew  where,  for — nobody  knew 
what ;  and  for  aught  he  knew  to  the  contrary,  was 
at  the  bottom  of  all  the  disturbances  that  had  beset 
the  good  people  of  Nieuw- Amsterdam  for  the  last 


IN    NIEUW-AMSTERDAM.  96 

two  nights.  Accordingly,  the  honest  man  went  on  his 
way  to  the  Stadt  Huys,  where  the  excellent  magis 
trate  was  taking  his  turn  in  presiding  over  the  peace 
of  the  city  of  Nieuw-Amsterdam,  arid  told  all  he 
knew,  together  with  much  more  besides. 

During  this  communication,  the  worthy  alderman 
exclaimed,  from  time  to  time,  "  Indeedaad  !"  "  On- 
begrypelyk  !"  "  Goeden  Hemel !"  "  Is  het  moge- 
lyk  !"  "  Vuur  envlammen  !"  and  finally  dismissed 
Mynheer  Swighauser,  desiring  him  to  watch  the 
stranger,  and  come  next  day  with  the  result  of  his 
observations.  After  which  he  went  home  to  con 
sult  his  pillow,  which  he  considered  worth  all  the 
law  books  in  the  world. 

The  honest  publican  returned  to  the  City  Tav 
ern,  where  he  found  supper  all  ready;  and  the 
stranger,  sitting  down  as  usual  in  the  old  place,  ate 
a  hearty  meal  without  uttering  one  word.  The 
yflrouw  was  out  of  all  patience  with  him,  seeing  she 
never  before  had  a  guest  in  the  house  four-and- 
twenty  hours,  without  knowing  all  about  him. 
The  upshot  of  the  interview  with  the  worthy  ma 
gistrate  being  disclosed  to  the  yffrouw,  it  was 
agreed  in  secret  to  set  old  Quashee,  the  black 
hostler,  to  watch  the  stranger ;  though  the  yffrouw 
told  her  husband  he  might  as  well  set  a  wooden 
image  to  do  it,  for  Quashee  was  the  most  notorious 
sleepyhead  in  all  Nieuw-Amsterdam,  not  except 
ing  himself. 

"  Well,  well,"  quoth  mynheer,  "  men  weet  niet 
hoe  een  koe  een  haas  vangan  kan ;"  which  means, 


96  A    STRANGE    BIRD 

"There  is  no  saying  that  a  cow  won't  catch  a 
hare,"  and  so  tae  matter  was  settled. 

When  the  stranger  retired  to  his  room  after 
supper,  the  old  negro  was  accordingly  stationed 
outside  the  door,  with  strict  injunctions  to  keep 
himself  awake,  on  pain  of  losing  his  Newyear 
present,  and  being  shut  up  in  the  stable  all  New- 
year's  day.  But  it  is  recorded  of  Quashee,  that 
the  flesh  was  too  strong  for  the  spirit,  though  he 
had  a  noggin  of  genuine  Holland  to  comfort  him, 
and  that  he  fell  into  a  profound  nap,  which  lasted 
till  after  sunrise  next  day,  when  he  was  found  sit 
ting  bolt  upright  on  a  three-legged  stool,  with  his 
little  black  stump  of  a  pipe  declining  from  the 
dexter  corner  of  his  mouth.  Mynheer  was  ex 
ceeding  wroth,  and  did  accommodate  old  Quashee 
with  such  a  hearty  cuff  on  the  side  of  his  head, 
that  he  fell  from  the  stool,  and  did  incontinently 
roll  down  the  stairs  and  so  into  the  kitchen,  where 
he  was  arrested  by  the  great  Dutch  andirons. 
"  Een  vervlocktejonge"  exclaimed  Mynheer  Swig- 
hauser,  u  men  weet  niet,  hoe  een  dubbeltje  rollen 
kan" — in  English,  "  There  is  no  saying  which  way 
a  sixpence  will  roll." 

At  breakfast,  the  stranger  was  for  the  first  time 
missing  from  his  meals,  and  this  excited  no  small 
wonder  in  the  family,  which  was  marvellously  ag 
gravated,  when,  after  knocking  some  time  and 
receiving  no  answer,  the  door  was  opened,  and  the 
stranger  found  wanting. 

"  Is  het  mogelyk  /"  exclaimed  the  yffrouw,  and 


IN   NIEUW-AMSTERDAM.  97 

"  Wat  blixen  /"  cried  mynheer.  But  their  excla 
mations  were  speedily  arrested  by  the  arrival  of  the 
reverend  schout,  Master  Roelif,  as  he  was  com 
monly  called,  who  summoned  them  both  forthwith 
to  the  Stadt  Huys,  at  the  command  of  his  worship 
Alderman  Schlepevalker. 

"  Ben  je  bedonnered  1"  cried  mynheer ;  "  what 
can  his  worship  want  of  my  wife  now  ?" 

"  Never  mind,"  replied  the  good  yffrouw,  "  het  is 
goed  visschen  in  troebel  water"  and  so  they  fol 
lowed  Master  Roelif  to  the  Stadt  House,  according 
to  the  behest  of  Alderman  Schlepevalker,  as  afore 
said.  When  they  arrived  there,  whom  should 
they  see,  in  the  middle  of  a  great  crowd  in  the  hall 
of  justice,  but  that  "vervlocte  hond"  the  stranger, 
as  the  yffrouw  was  wont  to  call  him,  when  he 
would  not  answer  her  questions. 

The  stranger  was  standing  with  his  hands  tied 
behind,  and  apparently  unconscious,  or  indifferent 
to  what  was  going  forward  around  him.  It  appears 
he  had  been  detected  very  early  in  the  morning  in 
a  remote  part  of  the  King's  Farm,  as  it  was  after 
wards  called,  but  which  was  then  a  great  forest  full 
of  rabbits  arid  other  game,  standing  over  the  dead 
body  of  a  man,  whose  name  and  person  were 
equally  unknown,  no  one  recollecting  ever  to  have 
seen  him  before.  On  being  interrogated  on  the 
subject,  he  had  not  only  declined  answering,  but 
affected  to  take  not  the  least  heed  of  what  they  said 
to  him.  Under  these  suspicious  circumstances  he 
was  brought  before  the  magistrate,  charged  with 
9  E 


98  A    STRANGE    BIRD 

the  murder  of  the  unknown  person,  whose  body 
was  also  produced  in  proof  of  the  fact.  No  marks 
of  violence  were  found  on  the  body,  but  all  agreed 
that  the  man  was  dead,  and  that  there  must  have 
been  some  cause  for  his  death.  The  vulgar  are 
ever  prone  to  suspicions,  and  albeit,  are  so  fond  of 
seeing  a  man  hanged,  that  they  care  little  to  inquire 
whether  he  is  guilty  or  not. 

The  worthy  alderman,  after  ordering  Master 
Roelif  to  call  the  people  to  order,  proceeded  to 
interrogate  the  prisoner  as  folio weth  : — 

"  What  is  thy  name  ?" 

The  stranger  took  not  the  least  notice  of  him. 

"  What  is  thy  name,  ben  je  bedonnered  ?"  re 
peated  the  worthy  magistrate,  in  a  loud  voice,  and 
somewhat  of  a  violent  gesture  of  impatience. 

The  stranger  looked  him  in  the  face  and  nodded 
his  head. 

"  Wat  donner  is  dat  ?"  cried  the  magistrate. 

The  stranger  nodded  as  before. 

"  Wat  donner  meen  je  ?" 

Another  nod.  The  worthy  magistrate  began,  as 
it  were,  to  wax  wroth,  and  demanded  of  the  prisoner 
whence  he  came ;  but  he  had  relapsed  into  his 
usual  indifference,  and  paid  not  the  least  attention, 
as  before.  Whereupon  the  angry  alderman  com 
mitted  him  for  trial,  on  the  day  but  one  following, 
as  the  witnesses  were  all  on  the  spot,  and  the  pris 
oner  contumacious.  In  the  interim,  the  body  of 
the  dead  man  had  been  examined  by  the  only  two 
doctors  of  Nieuw-Amsterdam,  Mynheer  Van  Do- 


IN   NIEUW-AMSTERDAM.  99 

sum  and  Mynheer  Vander  Cureum,  who  being  rival 
practitioners,  of  course  differed  entirely  on  the 
matter.  Mynheer  Van  Dosum  decided  that  the 
unknown  died  by  the  hand  of  man,  and  Mynheer 
Vander  Cureum,  by  the  hand  of  his  Maker. 

When  the  cause  came  to  be  tried,  the  stranger, 
as  before,  replied  to  all  questions,  either  by  taking 
not  the  least  notice,  or  nodding  his  head.  The 
worthy  magistrate  hereupon  was  sorely  puzzled, 
whether  this  ought  to  be  construed  into  pleading 
guilty  or  not  pleading  at  all.  In  the  former  case 
his  course  was  quite  clear ;  in  the  latter,  he  did  not 
exactly  know  which  way  to  steer  his  doubts.  But 
fortunately  having  no  lawyers  to  confound  him,  he 
finally  decided,  after  consulting  the  ceiling  of  the 
courtroom,  that  as  it  was  so  easy  for  a  man  to  say 
not  guilty,  the  omission  or  refusal  to  say  it  was 
tantamount  to  a  confession  of  guilt.  Accordingly 
he  condemned  the  prisoner  to  be  hanged,  in  spite 
of  the  declaration  of  Doctor  Vander  Cureum,  that 
the  murdered  man  died  of  apoplexy. 

The  prisoner  received  the  sentence,  and  was 
conducted  to  prison  without  saying  a  word  in  his 
defence,  and  without  discovering  the  least  emotion 
on  the  occasion.  He  merely  looked  wistfully,  first 
on  the  worthy  magistrate,  then  on  his  bonds,  and 
then  at  Master  Roelif,  who,  according  to  the  cus 
tom  of  such  losel  varlets  in  office,  rudely  pushed 
him  out  of  the  court  and  dragged  him  to  prison. 
!  On  the  fourteenth  day  after  his  condemnation,  it 
being  considered  that  sufficient  time  had  been 
E  2 


100  A    STRANGE    BIRD 

allowed  him  to  repent  of  his  sins,  the  poor  stranger 
was  brought  forth  to  execution.  He  was  accom 
panied  by  the  good  dominie,  who  had  prepared  his 
last  dying  speech  and  confession,  and  certified  that 
he  died  a  repentant  sinner.  His  face  was  pale 
and  sad,  and  his  whole  appearance  bespoke  weak 
ness  and  suffering.  He  still  persisted  in  his  obsti 
nate  silence,  and  seemed  unconscious  of  what  was 
going  forward ;  whether  from  indifference  or  de 
spair,  it  was  impossible  to  decide.  When  placed 
on  a  coffin  in  the  cart,  and  driven  under  the  gallows, 
he  seemed  for  a  moment  to  be  aware  of  his  situa 
tion,  and  the  bitter  tears  coursed  one  by  one  down 
his  pallid  cheeks.  But  he  remained  silent  as  be 
fore  ;  and  when  the  rope  was  tied  round  his  neck, 
only  looked  wistfully  with  a  sort  of  innocent  wonder 
in  the  face  of  the  executioner. 

All  being  now  ready,  and  the  gaping  crowd  on 
the  tiptoe  of  expectation,  the  dominie  sang  a  devout 
hymn,  and  shaking  hands  for  the  last  time  with  the 
poor  stranger,  descended  from  the  cart.  The  bell 
tolled  the  signal  for  launching  him  into  the  illimit 
able  ocean  of  eternity,  when,  all  at  once,  its  dismal 
moanings  were,  as  it  were,  hushed  into  silence  by 
the  piercing  shrieks  of  a  female  which  seemed 
approaching  from  a  distance.  Anon  a  voice  was 
heard  crying  out,  "  Stop,  stop,  for  the  love  of 
Heaven  stop ;  he  is  innocent !" 

The  crowd  opened,,  and  a  woman  of  good  ap 
pearance,  seemingly  about  forty-five  years  old, 
rushed  forward,  and  throwing  herself  at  the  feet 


IN   NIEUW-AMSTEBDAft.  !       :'.;'•    J01 

of  the  worthy  alderman,  whose  duty  it  was  to  pre 
side  at  the  execution  and  maintain  due  order  among 
the  crowd,  cried  out  aloud, 

"  Spare  him,  he  is  my  son — he  is  innocent !" 

"  Ben  je  bedonnered  ?"  cried  the  magistrate, 
"  he  is  een  verdoemde  schurk,  and  has  confessed 
his  crime  by  not  denying  it." 

"  He  cannot  confess  or  deny  it — he  was  born 
deaf  and  dumb !" 

"Goeden  Hemel!"  exclaimed  Alderman  Schlepe- 
valcker ;  "  that  accounts  for  his  not  pleading  guilty 
or  not  guilty.  But  art  thou  sure  of  it,  good 
woman  ?" 

"  Sure  of  it !  Did  not  I  give  him  birth,  and  did 
I  not  watch  like  one  hanging  over  the  deathbed  of 
an  only  child,  year  after  year,  to  catch  some  token 
that  he  could  hear  what  I  said  ?  Did  I  not  try  and 
try,  day  after  day,  month  after  month,  year  after 
year,  to  teach  him  only  to  name  the  name  of  mo 
ther  ?  and  when  at  last  I  lost  all  hope  that  I  should 
ever  hear  the  sound  of  his  voice,  did  I  not  still  bless 
Heaven  that  I  was  not  childless,  though  my  son 
could  not  call  me  mother  ?" 

"  Het  is  jammer  /"  exclaimed  the  worthy  magis 
trate,  wiping  his  eyes.  "But  still  a  dumb  man 
may  kill  another,  for  all  this.  What  have  you  to 
say  against  that  ?" 

At  this  moment  the  poor  speechless  youth  re 
cognised  his  mother,  and  uttering  a  strange  inar 
ticulate  scream,  burst  away  from  the  executioner, 
leaped  from  the  cart,  and  throwing  himself  on  her 
9* 


-102 


A    STRANGE    BIRD 


bosom,  sobbed  as  if  his  heart  was  breaking.  The 
mother  pressed  him  to  her  heart  in  silent  agony, 
and  the  absence  of  words  only  added  to  the  deep 
pathos  of  the  meeting. 

Alderman  Schlepevalcker  was  sorely  puzzled  as 
well  as  affected  on  this  occasion,  and  after  wiping 
his  eyes,  addressed  the  weeping  mother. 

"  How  came  thy  son  hither  ?" 

"  He  is  accustomed  to  ramble  about  the  country, 
sometimes  all  day,  alone;  and  one  day  having 
strayed  farther  than  usual,  lost  his  way,  and  being 
unable  to  ask  any  information,  wandered  we  knew 
not  whither,  until  a  neighbour  told  us  a  rumour  of 
a  poor  youth,  who  was  about  to  be  executed  at 
Nieuw- Amsterdam  for  refusing  to  answer  questions. 
I  thought  it  might  be  my  son,  and  came  in  time,  I 
hope,  to  save  him." 

"  Why  did  not  thy  husband  come  with  thee  ?" 

"  He  is  dead." 

"And  thy  father?" 

"  He  died  when  I  was  a  child." 

"  And  thy  other  relatives  ?" 

"  I  have  none  but  him,"  pointing  to  the  dumb 
youth. 

"  Het  is  jammer !  but  how  will  he  get  rid  of  the 
charge  of  this  foul  murder  ?" 

"  I  will  question  him,"  said  the  mother,  who  now 
made  various  signs,  which  were  replied  to  by  the 
youth  in  the  same  way. 

"  What  does  he  say  ?"  asked  the  worthy  magis 
trate. 


r 
IN   NIEUW-AMSTERDAM.  103 

"  He  says  that  he  went  forth  early  in  the  morn 
ing  of  the  day ;  he  was  found  standing  over  the 
dead  body,  as  soon  as  the  gate  was  opened  to  admit 
the  country  people,  where  he  saw  the  dead  man 
lying  under  a  tree,  and  was  seized  while  thus  oc 
cupied.  He  knows  nothing  more." 

"  Oribegrypelik !  how  can  you  understand  all 
this  ?" 

"  Oh,  sir,  I  have  been  used  to  study  every  look 
and  action  of  his  life  since  he  was  a  child,  and  can 
comprehend  his  inmost  thoughts." 

"Goeden  Hemel !  is  all  this  true  ?  but  he  must 
go  back  to  prison,  while  I  wait  on  the  governor  to 
solicit  his  pardon.  Wilt  thou  accompany  him  ?" 

"  Oh  yes  ! — but  no.  I  will  go  with  thee  to  the 
governor.  He  will  not  deny  the  petition  of  a  mo 
ther  for  the  life  of  her  only  child." 

Accordingly,  the  worthy  magistrate  calling  on 
Doctor  Vander  Cureum  on  his  way,  proceeded  to 
the  governor's  house,  accompanied  by  the  mother 
of  the  youth,  who  repeated  what  he  had  told  her 
by  signs.  The  doctor  also  again  certified,  in  the 
most  positive  manner,  that  the  supposed  murdered 
man  had  died  of  apoplexy,  brought  on,  as  he  sup-' 
posed,  by  excessive  drinking ;  and  the  good  gov 
ernor,  moved  by  the  benevolence  of  his  heart,  did 
thereupon  grant  the  poor  youth  an  unconditional 
pardon.  He  was  rewarded  by  the  tears,  the 
thanks,  and  the  blessings  of  the  now  happy 
mother. 

"  Where  dost  thou  abide  ?"  asked  the  governor 


104      A  STRANGE  BIRD  IN  NIEUW-AMSTERDAM. 

"  If  it  is  at  a  distance,  I  will  send  some  one  to 
protect  thee." 

"  My  home  is  beyond  the  fresh  water  river." 

"  Wat  blikslager !  thou  belongest  to  the  Splut- 
terkins,  who — but  no  matter,  thou  shall  have  pro 
tection  in  thyjourney  home."  The  governor,  being 
somewhat  of  a  conscientious  man,  instead  of 
swearing  by  the  lightning,  did  piously  asseverate 
by  the  tinman. 

The  young  man  was  forthwith  released,  to  the 
unutterable  joy  of  the  mother,  and  the  infinite  con 
tent  of  the  Yffrouw  Swighauser,  who,  now  that  she 
knew  the  cause  of  his  silence,  forgave  him  with 
all  her  heart.  The  next  day  the  mother  and  son 
departed  towards  home,  accompanied  by  an  escort 
provided  by  the  good  governor,  the  commander  of 
which  carried  a  stout  defiance  to  the  Yankees ; 
and  the  last  words  of  that  upright  and  excellent 
magistrate,  Alderman  Schlepevalcker,  as  he  looked 
kindly  at  the  youth,  were, 

"  Het  is  jammer—* it  is  a  pity." 


GLAAS  SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 


THRicEj)lessed  St.  Nicholas  !  may  thy  memory 
and  thine  honours  endure  for  ever  and  a  day  !  It 
is  true  that  certain  arch  calumniators,  such  as 
Romish  priests,  and  the  like,  have  claimed  thee  as 
a  Catholic  saint,  affirming,  with  unparalleled  inso 
lence,  that  ever  since  the  pestilent  heresy  of  the  il 
lustrious  John  Calvin,  there  hath  not  been  so  much 
as  a  single  saint  in  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church. 
But  beshrew  these  keepers  of  fasts,  and  other 
abominations,  the  truth  is  not,  never  was,  nor  ever 
will  be  in  their  mouths,  or  their  hearts !  Doth 
not  everybody  know  that- the  blessed  St.  Nicholas 
was  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church,  and  that  the 
cunning  Romanists  did  incontinently  filch  him 
from  us  to  keep  their  own  calendar  in  countenance  ? 
The  splutterkins  !  But  I  will  restrain  the  outpour 
ings  of  my  wrath,  and  contenting  myself  with  hav 
ing  proved  that  the  good  saint  was  of  the  true  faith, 
proceed  with  my  story,  which  is  of  undoubted  au 
thority,  since  I  had  it  from  a  descendant  of  Claas 
Schlaschenschlinger  himself,  who  lives  in  great 

honour  and  glory  at  the  Waalboght  on  Long  Island, 
E3 


106  CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 

and  is  moreover  a  justice  of  the  peace  and  deacon 
of  the  church. 

Nicholas,  or,  according  to  the  true  orthography, 
Claas  Schlaschenschlinger,  was  of  a  respectable 
parentage,  being  born  at  Saardam,  in  our  good 
faderland,  where  his  ancestors  had  been  proprietors 
of  the  greatest  windmill  in  all  the  country  round, 
ever  since  the  period  when  that  bloody  tyrant, 
Philip  of  Spain,  was  driven  from  the  Low  Countries 
by  the  invincible  valour  of  the  Dutch,  under  the 
good  Prince  of  Orange.  It  is  said  in  a  certain 
credible  tradition,  that  one  of  the  family  had  done 
a  good  turn  to  the  worshipful  St.  Nicholas,  in  se 
creting  him  from  the  persecutions  of  the  Romanists, 
who  now,  forsooth,  claim  him  to  themselves !  and 
that  ever  afterwards  the  saint  took  special  interest 
and  cognizance  in  their  affairs. 

While  at  Saardam,  little  Claas,  who  was  the 
youngest  of  a  goodly  family  of  seventeen  children, 
was  observed  to  be  a  great  favourite  of  St.  Nich 
olas,  whose  namesake  he  was,  who  always  brought 
him  a  cake  or  two  extra  at  his  Christmas  visits,  and 
otherwise  distinguished  him  above  his  brothers  and 
sisters  ;  whereat  they  were  not  a  little  jealous,  and 
did  sometimes  slyly  abstract  some  of  the  little 
rogue's  benefactions,  converting  them  to  their  own 
comfort  and  recreation. 

In  the  process  of  time,  Claas  grew  to  be  a  stout 
lad,  and  withal  a  little  wild,  as  he  did  sometimes 
neglect  the  great  windmill,  the  which  he  had  charge 
of  in  turn  with  the  rest  of  his  brothers,  whereby 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  107 

il  more  than  once  came  to  serious  damage.  Upon 
these  occasions,  the  worthy  father,  who  had  a  rev 
erend  care  of  the  morals  of  his  children,  was  accus 
tomed  to  give  him  the  bastinado;  but  as  Claas 
wore  a  competent  outfit  of  breeches,  he  did  not 
much  mind  it,  not  he ;  only  it  made  him  a  little  an 
gry,  for  he  was  a  boy  of  great  spirit.  About  the 
time,  I  say,  that  Claas  had  arrived  at  the  years  of 
two  or  three  and  twenty,  and  was  considered  a  stout 
boy  for  his  age,  there  was  great  talk  of  settling  a 
colony  at  the  Manhadoes,  which  the  famous  Hein- 
rick  Hudson  had  discovered  long  years  before. 
Many  people  of  good  name  and  substance  were 
preparing  to  emigrate  there,  seeing  it  was  described 
as  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey — that  is  to 
say,  abounding  in  shad  and  herrings — and  affording 
mighty  bargains  of  beaver  and  other  skins. 

Now  Claas  began  to  cherish  an  earnest  longing 
to  visit  these  parts,  for  he  was  tired  of  tending  the 
windmill,  and  besides  he  had  a  natural  love  for 
marshes  and  creeks,  and  being  a  shrewd  lad,  con 
cluded  that  there  must  be  plenty  of  these  where 
beavers  and  such  like  abounded.  But  his  father 
and  the  Vrouw  Schlaschenschlinger  did  eschew  and 
anathematize  this  notion  of  Claas's,  and  placed  him 
apprentice  to  an  eminent  shoemaker,  to  learn  that 
useful  art  and  mystery.  Claas  considered  it  derog 
atory  to  the  son  of  the  proprietor  of  the  greatest 
windmill  in  all  Saardam  to  carry  the  lapstone,  and 
wanted  to  be  a  doctor,  a  lawyer,  or  some  such 
thing.  But  his  father  told  him  in  so  many  words, 


108  CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 

that  there  were  more  lawyers  than  clients  in  the 
town  already,  and  that  a  good  cobbler  saved  more 
people  from  being  sick,  than  all  the  doctors  cured. 
So  Claas  became  apprentice  to  the  shoemaking 
business,  and  served  out  his  time,  after  which  he 
got  to  be  his  own  master,  and  determined  to  put 
in  practice  his  design  of  visiting  the  Manhadoes,  of 
which  he  had  never  lost  sight. 

After  much  ado,  Mynheer  Schlaschenschlinger, 
and  the  good  vrouw,  consented  unwillingly  to  let 
him  follow  the  bent  of  his  inclinations,  and  accord 
ingly  all  things  were  got  ready  for  his  departure 
for  the  New  World,  in  company  with  a  party  which 
was  going  out  under  that  renowned  Lord  Michael 
Paauw,  who  was  proceeding  to  settle  his  domain 
of  Pavonia,  which  lieth  directly  opposite  to  New- 
Amsterdam.  Mynheer  Schlaschenschlinger  fitted 
out  his  son  nobly,  and  becoming  the  owner  of  the 
largest  windmill  in  all  Saardam,  equipping  him 
with  awls,  and  knives,  and  wax,  and  thread,  to 
gether  with  a  bench,  and  a  goodly  lapstone,  con 
sidering  in  his  own  mind  that  the  great  scarcity  of 
stones  in  Holland  might,  peradventure,  extend  to 
the  Manhadoes.  Now  all  being  prepared,  it  was 
settled  that  Claas  should  depart  on  the  next  day 
but  one,  the  next  being  St.  Nicholas  his  day,  and 
a  great  festival  among  the  people  of  Holland. 

According  to  custom,  ever  since  the  days  of  the 
bless-ed  saint,  they  had  a  plentiful  supper  of  waf 
fles  and  chocolate — that  pestilent  beverage  tea  not 
having  yet  come  into  fashion — and  sat  up  talking 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  109 

of  Claas,  his  adventures,  and  what  he  would  see 
and  hear  in  the  Manhadoes,  till  it  was  almost  nine 
o'clock.  Upon  this,  mynheer  ordered  them  all  to 
bed,  being  scandalized  at  such  unseasonable  hours. 
In  the  morning  when  Claas  got  up,  and  went  to 
put  on  his  stocking,  he  felt  something  hard  at  the 
toe,  and  turning  it  inside  out,  there  fell  on  the  floor 
the  bowl  of  a  pipe  of  the  genuine  Meershaum, 
which  seemed  to  have  been  used  beyond  memory, 
since  its  polish  was  a  thousand  times  more  soft 
and  delightsome  than  ivory  or  tortoise  shell,  and 
its  lustre  past  all  price.  Would  that  the  blessed 
saint  would  bestow  such  a  one  on  me  ! 

Claas  was  delighted ;  he  kissed  it  as  if  he  had 
been  an  idolatrous  Romanist — which,  by  the  bless 
ing  or^frNTcholas,  he  was  not— and  bestowing  it 
in  the  bottom  of  his  strong  oaken  chest,  resolved, 
like  unto  a  prudent  Dutchman,  never  to  use  it, 
for  fear  of  accidents.  In  a  few  hours  afterwards, 
he  parted  from  his  parents,  his  family,  and  his 
home  ;  his  father  gave  him  a  history  of  the  bloody 
wars  and  persecutions  of  Philip  of  Spain  ;  a  small 
purse  of  guilders,  and  abundance  of  advice  for  the 
government  of  his  future  life  ;  but  his  mother  gave 
him  what  was  more  precious  than  all  these — her 
tears,  her  blessing,  and  a  little  Dutch  Bible  with 
silver  clasps.  Bibles  were  not  so  plenty  then  as 
they  are  now,  and  were  considered  as  the  greatest 
treasures  of  the  household.  His  brothers  and  sis 
ters  took  an  affectionate  farewell  of  him,  and  asked 
his  pardon  for  stealing  his  Newyear  cookies.  So 
10 


110  CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 

Claas  kissed  his  mother,  promising,  if  it  pleased 
Heaven,  to  send  her  stores  of  herrings  and  beaver 
skins,  whereat  she  was  marvellously  comforted  ; 
and  he  went  on  his  way,  as  it  were  sorrowfully 
rejoicing. 

I  shall  pass  over  the  journey,  and  the  voyage  to 
the  Manhadoes,  saving  the  relation  of  a  curious 
matter  that  occurred  after  the  ship  had  been  about 
ninety  days  at  sea,  and  they  were  supposed  to  be 
well  on  their  way  to  the  port  of  New- Amsterdam. 
It  came  into  the  heads  of  the  passengers  to  while 
away  the  time  as  they  were  lying  to  one  day  with 
the  sails  all  furled,  except  one  or  two,  which  I  name 
not,  for  a  special  reason,  contrary  to  the  practice 
of  most  writers — namely,  because  I  am  ignorant 
thereof — having  the  sails  thus  furled,  I  say,  on 
account  of  certain  suspicious-looking  clouds,  the 
which  the  captain,  who  kept  a  bright  lookout  day 
and  night,  had  seen  hovering  overhead,  with  no 
good  intentions,  it  came  into  the  noddles  of  divers 
of  the  passengers  to  pass  the  time  by  opening  their 
chests,  and  comparing  their  respective  outfits,  for 
they  were  an  honest  set  of  people,  and  not  afraid 
of  being  robbed. 

When  Claas  showed  his  lapstone,  most  of  the 
company,  on  being  told  the  reasons  for  bringing  it 
such  a  long  distance,  held  up  their  hands,  and  ad 
mired  the  foresight  of  his  father,  considering  him  an 
exceeding  prudent  and  wise  man  to  think  of  such 
matters.  Some  of  them  wanted  to  buy  it  on  spec 
ulation,  but  Claas  was  too  well  acquainted  with  its 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  Ill 

value  to  set  a  price  on  it.  While  they  were  thus 
chaffering,  an  old  sailor,  who  had  accompanied  the 
renowned  Heinrick  Hudson  as  cabin  boy,  in  his 
first  voyage  to  the  Manhadoes,  happening  to  come 
by  and  hear  them,  swore  a  great  Dutch  oath,  and 
called  Claas  a  splutterkin  for  bringing  stones  all 
the  way  from  Holland,  saying  that  there  were 
enough  at  the  Manhadoes  to  furnish  lapstones  for 
the  whole  universe.  Whereupon  Claas  thought  to 
himself,  "  What  a  fine  country  it  must  be,  where 
stones  are  so  plenty." 

In  process  of  time,  as  all  things,  and  especially 
voyagings  by  sea,  have  an  end,  the  vessel  came  in 
sight  of  the  highlands  of  Neversink — vulgarly  called 
by  would-be  learned  writers,  Navesink — and  Claas 
and  the  rest,  who  had  never  seen  such  vast  moun 
tains  before,  did  think  that  it  was  a  wall,  built  up 
from  the  earth  to  the  sky,  and  that  there  was  no 
world  beyond. 

Favoured  by  a  fine  south  wind,  whose  balmy 
freshness  had  awakened  the  young  spring  into 
early  life  and  beauty,  they  shot  like  an  arrow  from 
a  bow  through  the  Narrows,  and  sailing  along  the 
heights  of  Staaten  Island,  came  in  sight  of  the  il 
lustrious  city  of  New-Amsterdam,  which,  though  at 
that  period  containing  but  a  few  hundred  people,  I 
shall  venture  to  predict,  in  some  future  time,  may 
actually  number  its  tens  of  thousands. 

Truly  it  was  a  beautiful  city,  and  a  beautiful 
sight  as  might  be  seen  of  a  spring  morning.  As 
they  came  through  Buttermilk  Channel,  they  be- 


112  CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 

held  with  delighted  astonishment  the  fort,  the 
church,  the  governor's  house,  the  great  dock  jutting 
out  into  the  salt  river,  the  Stadt  Huys,  the  rondeel, 
and  a  goodly  assemblage  of  houses,  with  the  gable 
ends  to  the  street,  as  before  the  villanous  introduc 
tion  of  new  fashions,  and  at  the  extremity  of  the 
city,  the  gate  and  wall,  from  whence  Wall-street 
deriveth  its  name.  But  what  above  all  gloriously 
delighted  Claas,  was  a  great  windmill,  towering  in 
the  air,  and  spreading  its  vast  wings  on  the  rising 
ground  along  the  Broadway,  between  Liberty  and 
Courtlandt  streets,  the  which  reminded  him  of  home 
and  his  parents.  The  prospect  rejoiced  them  all 
mightily,  for  they  thought  to  themselves,  "  We  have 
come  to  a  little  Holland  far  over  the  sea." 

So  far  as  I  know,  it  was  somewhere  about  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  six  hundred  and 
sixty,  or  thereabout,  and  in  the  month  of  May, 
that  Claas  landed  in  the  New  World  ;  but  of  the 
precise  day  of  the  month  I  cannot  be  certain,  see 
ing  what  confusion  of  dates  hath  been  caused  by 
that  idolatrous  device  of  Pope  Gregory,  called  the 
New  Style,  whereby  events  that  really  happened  in 
one  year  are  falsely  put  down  to  another,  by  which 
means  history  becomes  naught.  The  first  thing 
he  thought  of,  was  to  provide  himself  a  home,  for 
be  it  known  it  was  not  then  the  fashion  to  live  in 
taverns  and  boarding  houses,  and  the  man  who  thus 
demeaned  himself  was  considered  no  better  than 
he  should  be ;  nobody  would  trust  or  employ  him, 
and  he  might  consider  it  a  special  bounty  of  the 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  113 

good  St.  Nicholas,  if  he  escaped  a  ride  on  the 
wooden  horse  provided  for  the  punishment  of  de 
linquents.  So  Claas  looked  out  for  a  pleasant 
place  whereon  to  pitch  his  tent.  As  he  walked 
forth  for  this  end,  his  bowels  yearned  exceedingly 
for  a  lot  on  the  Broad-street,  through  which  ran  a 
delightful  creek,  crooked  like  unto  a  ram's  horn, 
the  sides  of  which  were  low,  and,  as  it  were,  juicy 
with  the  salt  water  which  did  sometimes  overflow 
them  at  spring  tides,  and  the  full  of  the  moon. 
More  especially  the  ferry  house,  with  its  never  to 
be  forgotten  weathercock,  did  incite  him  sorely  to 
come  and  set  himself  down  thereabout.  But  he 
was  deterred  by  the  high  price  of  lots  in  that  fa 
voured  region,  seeing  they  asked  him  as  much  as 
five  guilders  for  the  one  at  the  corner  of  the  Broad 
and  Wall  streets,  a  most  unheard-of  price,  and  not 
to  be  thought  of  by  a  prudent  man  like  Claas 
Schlaschenschlinger. 

So  he  sought  about  elsewhere,  though  he  often 
looked  wistfully  at  the  fair  meads  of  the  Broad- 
street,  and  nothing  deterred  him  from  ruining  him 
self  by  gratifying  his  longings,  but  the  truly  excel 
lent  expedient  of  counting  his  money,  which  I  re 
commend  to  all  honest  people,  before  they  make  a 
bargain.  But  though  he  could  not  settle  in  Broad- 
street,  he  resolved  in  his  mind  to  get  as  nigh  as 
possible,  and  finding  a  lot  with  a  little  puddle  of 
brackish  water  in  it  large  enough  for  a  goose  pond, 
nigh  unto  the  wall  and  gate  of  the  city,  and  just  at 

the   head  of  what  hath  lately  been  called  New- 
30* 


114  CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 

street — then  the  region  of  unsettled  lands — he  pro 
cured  a  grant  thereof  from  the  schout,  scheepens, 
and  burgomasters,  who  then  ruled  the  city,  for  five 
stivers,  being  the  amount  of  fees  for  writing  and 
recording  the  deed  by  the  Geheim  Schryver. 

Having  built  himself  a  comfortable  house,  with 
a  little  stoop  to  it,  he  purchased  a  pair  of  geese,  or, 
to  be  correct  and  particular,  as  becometh  a  consci 
entious  historian,  a  goose  and  gander,  that  he  might 
recreate  himself  with  their  gambols  in  the  salt  pud 
dle,  and  quietly  sat  himself  down  to  the  making  and 
mending  of  shoes.  In  this  he  prospered  at  first 
indifferently  well,  and  thereafter  mightily,  when 
the  people  found  that  he  made  shoes,  some  of 
which  were  reported  never  to  wear  out ;  but  this 
was,  as  it  were,  but  a  sort  of  figure  of  speech  to  ex 
press  their  excellent  qualities. 

Every  Sunday,  after  church,  in  pleasant  weather, 
Claas,  instead  of  putting  off  his  Sunday  suit,  as 
was  the  wont  of  the  times,  used  to  go  and  take  a 
walk  in  the  Ladies'  Valley,  since  called  Maiden 
Lane,  for  everything  has  changed  under  those  arch 
intruders,  the  English,  who,  I  believe,  in  their 
hearts,  are  half  Papists.  This  valley  was  an  ex 
ceeding  cool,  retired,  and  pleasant  place,  being  bor 
dered  by  a  wood,  in  the  which  was  plenty  of  pinkster 
blossoms  in  the  season.  Being  a  likely  young  fel- 
.ow,  and  dressed  in  a  goodly  array  of  breeches  and 
what  not,  he  was  much  noticed,  and  many  a  little 
damsel  cast  a  sheep's  eye  upon  him  as  he  sat  smo 
king  his  pipe  of  a  summer  afternoon  under  the  shade 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  115 

of  the  trees  which  grew  plentifully  in  that  quarter. 
I  don't  know  how  it  was,  but  so  it  happened,  that  in 
process  of  time  he  made  acquaintance  with  one  of 
these,  a  buxom  creature  of  rare  and  unmatchable 
lineaments  and  dimensions,  insomuch  that  she  was 
considered  the  beauty  of  New-Amsterdam,  and  had 
refused  even  the  burgomaster,  Barendt  Roeloffsen, 
who  was  taxed  three  guilders,  being  the  richest  man 
of  the  city.  But  Aintjie  was  not  to  be  bought  with 
gold ;  she  loved  Claas  because  he  was  a  solid  young 
fellow,  who  plucked  for  her  the  most  beautiful  pink- 
ster  blossoms,  and  was  the  most  pleasant  com 
panion  in  the  world,  for  a  ramble  in  the  Ladies' 
Valley. 

Report  says,  but  I  believe  there  was  no  great 
truth  in  the  story,  that  they  sometimes  QUEESTED* 
together,  but  of  that  I  profess  myself  doubtful. 
Certain  it  is,  however,  that  in  good  time  they  were 
married,  to  the  great  content  of  both,  and  the  great 
discontent  of  the  burgomaster,  Barendt  Roeloffsen. 

In  those  days  young  people  did  not  marry  to  set 
up  a  coach,  live  in  fine  houses  filled  with  rich  fur 
niture,  for  which  they  had  no  use,  and  become 
bankrupt  in  a  few  years.  They  began  in  a  small 
way,  and  increased  their  comforts  with  their  means. 
It  was  thus  with  Claas  and  his  wife,  who  were 
always  employed  in  some  useful  business,  and 
never  ran  into  extravagance,  except  it  may  be  on 
holydays.  In  particular  Claas  always  feasted  lus- 

*  This  word  is  untranslatable. 


116  CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 

tily  on  St.  Nicholas  his  day,  because,  he  was  his 
patron  saint,  and  he  remembered  his  kindness  in 
faderland. 

Thus  they  went  on  prospering  as  folks  always  do 
that  are  industrious  and  prudent,  every  year  laying 
up  money,  and  every  year  increasing  their  family ; 
for  be  it  known,  those  who  are  of  the  true  Dutch 
blood,  always  apportion  the  number  of  children  to 
the  means  of  providing  for  them.  They  never  are 
caught  having  children  for  other  people  to  take 
care  of.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  about  this  time  be 
gan  the  mischievous  and  oppressive  practice  of  im 
proving  the  city,  draining  the  marshes,  cutting 
down  hills,  and  straightening  streets,  which  hath 
since  grown  to  great  enormity  in  this  city,  inso 
much  that  a  man  may  be  said  to  be  actually  im 
poverished  by  his  property. 

Barendt  Roeloffsen,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the 
reformers,  having  a  great  estate  in  vacant  lands, 
which  he  wanted  to  make  productive  at  the  ex 
pense  of  his  neighbours — Barendt  Roeloffsen,  I 
say,  bestirred  himself  lustily  to  bring  about  what 
he  called,  in  outlandish  English,  the  era  of  im 
provement,  and  forthwith  looked  around  to  see 
where  he  should  begin.  I  have  always  believed, 
and  so  did  the  people  at  that  time,  that  Barendt 
singled  out  Claas  his  goose  pond  for  the  first  ex 
periment,  being  thereunto  impelled  by  an  old  grudge 
against  Claas,  on  account  of  his  having  cut  him  out 
•with  the  damsel  he  wished  to  marry,  as  before  re 
lated. 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  117 

But,  however,  Barendt  Roeloffsen,  who  bore  a 
great  sway  among  the  burgomasters,  on  account  of 
his  riches,  got  a  law  passed,  by  hook  or  by  crook, 
for  draining  Claas  his  pond,  at  his  own  expense> 
making  him  pay  at  the  same  time  for  the  rise  in 
the  value  of  his  property,  of  which  they  did  not  per 
mit  him  to  be  the  judge,  but  took  upon  themselves 
to  say  what  it  was.  The  ancestors  of  Claas  had 
fought  valiantly  against  Philip  of  Spain,  in  defence 
of  their  religion  and  liberty,  and  he  had  kept  up  his 
detestation  of  oppression  by  frequently  reading  the 
account  of  the  cruelties  committed  in  the  Low  Coun 
tries  by  the  Spaniard,  in  the  book  which  his  father 
had  given  him  on  his  departure  from  home.  Be 
sides,  he  had  a  great  admiration,  I  might  almost  say 
affection,  for  his  goose  pond,  as  is  becoming  in  ev 
ery  true  Dutchman.  In  it  he  was  accustomed  to 
see,  with  singular  delight,  his  geese,  now  increased 
to  a  goodly  flock,  sailing  about  majestically,  flap 
ping  their  wings,  dipping  their  necks  into  the  wa 
ter,  and  making  a  noise  exceedingly  tuneful  and 
melodious.  Here,  too,  his  little  children  were  wont 
to  paddle  in  the  summer  days,  up  to  their  knees  in 
the  water,  to  their  great  contentment  as  well  as  rec 
reation,  thereby  strengthening  themselves  exceed 
ingly.  Such  being  the  case,  Claas  resisted  the 
behest  of  the  burgomasters,  declaring  that  he  would 
appeal  to  the  laws  for  redress  if  they  persisted  in 
trespassing  on  his  premises.  But  what  can  a  man 
get  by  the  law  at  any  time,  much  less  when  the 
defendant,  as  in  this  case,  was  judge  as  well  as  a 


118  CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 

party  in  the  business  ?  After  losing  avast  deal  of 
time,  which  was  as  money  to  him,  and  spending  a 
good  portion  of  what  he  had  saved  for  his  children, 
Claas  was  at  length  cast  in  his  suit,  and  the  down 
fall  of  his  goose  pond  irrevocably  decreed. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  he  recovered  this  blow, 
and  when  he  did,  Fortune,  as  if  determined  to  per 
severe  in  her  ill  offices,  sent  a  blacksmith  from  Hol 
land,  who  brought  over  with  him  the  new  and  dia 
bolical  invention  of  hobnails,  the  which  he  so  stren 
uously  recommended  to  the  foolish  people,  who  are 
prone  to  run  after  novelties,  that  they,  one  and  all, 
had  their  shoes  stuck  full  of  nails,  whereby  they 
did  clatter  about  the  streets  like  unto  a  horse  newly 
shod.  As  might  be  expected,  the  business  of  shoe- 
making  decreased  mightily  upon  this,  insomuch 
that  the  shoes  might  be  said  to  last  for  ever ;  and  I 
myself  have  seen  a  pair  that  have  descended 
through  three  generations,  the  nails  of  which  shone 
like  unto  silver  sixpences.  Some  people  supposed 
this  was  a  plot  of  Barendt  Roeloffsen,  to  complete  the 
ruin  of  poor  Claas ;.  but  whether  it  was  or  not,  it  is 
certain  that  such  was  the  falling  oif  in  his  trade,  on 
account  of  the  pestilent  introduction  of  hobnails, 
that,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  Claas  found  that  he 
had  gone  down  hill  at  a  great  rate.  The  next  year 
it  was  still  worse,  and  thus,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
more,  from  bad  to  worse,  he  at  last  found  himself 
without  the  means  of  support  for  himself,  his  wife, 
and  his  little  children.  But  what  shows  the  good 
ness  of  Providence,  it  is  worthy  of  record,  that 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  4119 

from  this  time  his  family,  miraculously  as  it  were, 
ceased  to  increase. 

Neither  begging  nor  running  in  debt  without  the 
prospect  of  paying  was  in  fashion  in  those  days, 
nor  were  there  any  societies  to  invite  people  to 
idleness  and  improvidence  by  the  certainty  of  being 
relieved  from  their  consequences  without  the  trou 
ble  of  asking.  Claas  tried  what  labouring  day  and 
night  would  do,  but  there  was  no  use  in  making 
shoes  when  there  was  nobody  to  buy  them.  His 
good  wife  tried  the  magic  of  saving ;  but  where 
there  is  nothing  left  to  save,  economy  is  to  little 
purpose.  He  tried  to  get  into  some  other  busi 
ness,  but  the  wrath  of  Barendt  Roeloffsen  was  upon 
him,  and  the  whole  influence  of  the  burgomasters 
stood  in  his  way  on  account  of  the  opposition  he 
had  made  to  the  march  of  improvement.  He  then 
offered  his  house  and  lot  for  sale  ;  but  here  again 
his  old  enemy  Barendt  put  a  spoke  in  his  wheel, 
going  about  among  the  people  and  insinuating  that 
as  Claas  had  paid  nothing  for  his  lot,  the  title  was 
good  for  nothing.  So  one  by  one  he  tried  all  ways 
to  keep  want  from  his  door;  but  it  came  at  last, 
and  one  Newyear's  eve,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord — 
I  don't  know  what,  the  family  was  hovering  round 
a  miserable  fire,  not  only  without  the  customary 
means  of  enjoying  the  festivity  of  the  season,  but 
destitute  of  the  very  necessaries  of  life. 

The  evening  was  cold  and  raw,  and  the  heavy 
moanings  of  a  keen  northeast  wind  announced  the 
approach  of  a  snow  storm.  The  little  children 


120  CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 

cowered  over  the  almost  expiring  embers,  shivering 
with  cold  and  hunger ;  the  old  cat  lay  half  buried 
in  the  ashes  to  keep  herself  warm ;  and  the  poor 
father  and  mother  now  looked  at  the  little  flock  of 
ragged — no,  not  ragged — the  mother  took  care  of 
that ;  and  industry  can  always  ward  off  rags  and 
dirt.  But  though  not  ragged  or  dirty,  they  were 
miserably  clad  and  worse  fed ;  and  as  the  parents 
looked  first  at  them  and  then  at  each  other,  the 
tears  gathered  in  their  eyes  until  they  ran  over. 

"  We  must  sell  the  silver  clasps  of  the  Bible  my 
mother  gave  me,  wife,"  said  Claas,  at  last. 

"  The  Goodness  forbid,"  said  she  ;  "  we  should 
never  prosper  after  it." 

"We  can't  prosper  worse  than  we  do  now, 
Aintjie." 

"  You  had  better  sell  the  little  book  about  the 
murders  of  the  Spaniards,  that  you  sometimes  read 
to  me." 

"  It  has  no  silver  clasps,  and  will  bring  nothing," 
replied  Claas,  despondingly,  covering  his  face  with 
his  hand,  and  seeming  to  think  for  a  few  moments. 
All  at  once  he  withdrew  his  hand,  and  cried, 

"  The  pipe  !  the  meershaum  pipe  !  it  is  worth  a 
hundred  guilders  !"  and  he  ran  to  the  place  where 
he  had  kept  it  so  carefully  that  he  never  used  it 
once  in  the  whole  time  he  had  it  in  his  possession. 

He  looked  at  it  wistfully,  and  it  brought  to  his 
mind  the  time  he  found  it  in  his  stocking.  He 
thought  of  his  parents,  his  brothers,  his  sisters,  and 
old  faderland,  and  wished  he  had  never  parted  from 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  121 

them  to  visit  the  New  World.  His  wife  saw  what 
was  passing  in  his  heart,  and  said, 

"  Never  mind,  dear  Claas,  with  these  hundred 
guilders  we  shall  get  on  again  by  the  blessing  of 
the  good  St.  Nicholas,  whose  namesake  you  are." 

Claas  shook  his  head,  and  looked  at  the  meer- 
shaum,  which  he  could  not  bear  to  part  with,  be 
cause,  somehow  or  other,  he  could  not  help  thinking 
it  was  the  gift  of  St.  Nicholas.  The  wind  now 
freshened,  and  moaned  more  loudly  than  ever,  and 
the  snow  began  to  come  in  through  the  crevices  of 
the  door  and  windows.  The  cold  increased  apace, 
and  the  last  spark  of  fire  was  expiring  in  the  chim 
ney.  There  was  darkness  without  and  within,  for 
the  candle,  the  last  they  had,  was  just  going  out. 

Claas,  without  knowing  what  he  was  doing, 
rubbed  the  pipe  against  his  sleeve,  as  it  were  me 
chanically. 

He  had  scarcely  commenced  rubbing,  when  the 
door  suddenly  opened,  and  without  more  ado,  a  lit 
tle  man,  with  a  right  ruddy  good-humoured  face,  as 
round  as  an  apple,  and  a  cocked  beaver,  white  with 
snow,  walked  in,  without  so  much  as  saying,  "  By 
your  leave,"  arid  sitting  himself  by  the  side  of  the 
yffrouw,  began  to  blow  at  the  fire,  and  make  as  if 
he  was  warming  his  fingers,  though  there  was  no 
fire  there,  for  that  matter. 

Now    Claas   was    a    good-natured  fellow,  and 

though  he  had  nothing  to  give,  except  a  welcome, 

which  is  always  in  the  power  of  everybody,  yet  he 

wished  to  himself  he  had  more  fire  to  warm  peo- 

11  F 


122  CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER. 

pie's  fingers.  After  a  few  moments,  the  little  man 
rubbed  his  hands  together,  and  looking  around  him, 
with  a  good-humoured  smile,  said, 

"  Mynheer  Schlaschenschlinger,  methinks  it 
might  not  be  amiss  to  replenish  this  fire  a  little  ; 
'tis  a  bitter  cold  night,  and  my  fingers  are  almost 
frostbitten." 

"  Alack,  mynheer,"  quoth  Claas,  "  I  would,  with 
all  my  heart,  but  I  have  nothing  wherewith  to 
warm  myself  and  my  children,  unless  T  set  fire  to 
my  own  house.  I  am  sorry  I  cannot  entertain  thee 
better." 

Upon  this  the  little  man  broke  the  cane  with 
which  he  walked  into  two  pieces,  which  he  threw 
in  the  chimney,  and  thereupon  the  fire  began  to 
blaze  so  cheerfully  that  they  could  see  their  shad 
ows  on  the  wall,  and  the  old  cat  jumped  out  of  the 
ashes,  with  her  coat  well  singed,  which  made  the 
little  jolly  fellow  laugh  heartily. 

The  sticks  burnt  and  burnt,  without  going  out, 
and  they  were  soon  all  as  warm  and  comfortable 
as  could  be.  Then  the  little  man  said, 

"  Friend  Claas,  methinks  it  would  not  be  much 
amiss  if  the  good  vrouw  here  would  bestir  herself 
to  get  something  to  eat.  I  have  had  no  dinner  to 
day,  and  come  hither  on  purpose  to  make  merry 
with  thee.  Knowest  thou  not  that  this  is  New- 
year's  eve  ?" 

"  Alack  !"  replied  Claas,  "  I  know  it  full  well ; 
but  we  have  not  wherewithal  to  keep  away  hunger, 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  123 

much  less   to  make  merry  with.     Thou  art  wel 
come  to  all  we  have,  and  that  is  nothing/' 

"  Come,  come,  Friend  Claas,  thou  art  a  prudent 
man,  I  know,  but  I  never  thought  thou  wert  stingy 
before.  Bestir  thyself,  good  Aintjie,  and  see  what 
thou  canst  find  in  that  cupboard.  I  warrant  there 
is  plenty  of  good  fare  in  it." 

The  worthy  yffrouw  looked  rather  foolish  at  this 
proposal,  for  she  knew  she  would  find  nothing 
there  if  she  went ;  but  the  little  man  threatened  her, 
in  a  good-humoured  way,  to  break  the  long  pipe  he 
carried  stuck  in  his  cocked  hat,  over  her  nightcap, 
if  she  didn't  do  as  he  bid  her.  So  she  went  to  the 
cupboard,  resolved  to  bring  him  out  the  empty  pew 
ter  dishes,  to  show  they  had  nothing  to  give  him. 
But  when  she  opened  the  cupboard,  she  started 
back,  and  cried  out  aloud,  so  that  Claas  ran  to  see 
what  was  the  matter  ;  and  what  was  his  astonish 
ment  to  find  the  cupboard  full  of  all  sorts  of  good 
things  for  a  notable  jollification. 

"  Aha  !"  cried  the  merry  little  man,  "  you're 
caught  at  last.  I  knew  thou  hadst  plenty  to  en 
tertain  a  stranger  withal;  but  I  suppose  thou 
wantedst  to  keep  it  all  to  thyself.  Come,  come  ! 
bestir  thyself,  Aintjie,  for  I  am  as  hungry  as  a 
schoolboy." 

Aintjie  did  as  she  was  bid,  wondering  all  the 
time  who  this  familiar  little  man  could  be ;  for  the 
city  was  not  so  big,  but  that  she  knew  by  sight 
everybody  that  lived  in  it,  and  she  was  sure  she 
had  never  seen  him  before. 
F  2 


124  CLAAS    SCHLASCHEINSCHLINGER. 

In  a  short  time  there  was  a  glorious  array  of 
good  things  set  out  before  them,  and  they  proceed 
ed  to  enjoy  themselves  right  lustily  in  keeping  of 
the  merry  Newy ear's  eve.  The  little  man  cracked 
his  jokes,  patted  little  Nicholas — Claas,  his  young 
est  son,  who  was  called  after  his  father — on  the 
head ;  chucked  Aintjie  under  the  chin ;  said  he  was 
glad  she  did  not  wed  the  splutterkin  Barendt  Roe- 
loffsen,  arid  set  them  so  good  an  example,  that  they 
all  got  as  merry  as  crickets. 

By-and-by  the  little  man  inquired  of  Claas  con 
cerning  his  affairs,  and  he  gave  him  an  account  of 
his  early  prosperity,  and  how  he  had  declined,  in 
spite  of  all  he  could  do,  into  poverty  and  want ;  so 
that  he  had  nothing  left  but  his  wife,  his  children, 
his  Dutch  Bible,  his  history  of  the  Low  Country 
wars,  and  his  meershaum  pipe. 

"  Aha  !"  quoth  the  little  man,  "  you've  kept  that, 
hey  !  Let  me  see  it." 

Claas  gave  it  to  him,  while  the  tears  came  into 
his  eyes,  although  he  was  so  merry,  to  think  that 
he  must  part  with  it  on  the  morrow.  It  was  the 
pride  of  his  heart,  and  he  set  too  great  a  value  on 
it  to  make  any  use  of  it  whatever. 

The  little  man  took  the  pipe,  and  looking  at  it, 
said,  as  if  to  himself, 

"Yes  ;  here  it  is  !  the  very  identical  meershaum 
out  of  which  the  great  Calvin  used  to  smoke.  Thou 
hast  done  well,  Friend  Claas,  to  preserve  it ;  and 
thou  must  keep  it  as  the  apple  of  thine  eye  all  thy 
life,  and  give  it  as  an  inheritance  to  thy  children." 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENSCHLINGER.  125 

"  Alack  !"  cried  Aintjie,  "he  must  sell  it  to-mor 
row,  or  we  shall  want  wherewithal  for  a  dinner." 

"  Yea,"  said  Claas,  "  of  a  truth  it  must  go  to 
morrow  !" 

"  Be  quiet,  splutterkin !"  cried  the  little  man, 
merrily  ;  "  give  me  some  more  of  that  spiced  bev 
erage,  for  I  am  as  thirsty  as  a  dry  sponge.  Come, 
let  us  drink  to  the  Newyear,  for  it  will  be  here  in 
a  few  minutes." 

So  they  drank  a  cup  to  the  jolly  Newyear,  and 
at  that  moment  the  little  boys  and  negroes,  who 
didn't  mind  the  snow  any  more  than  a  miller  does 
flour,  began  to  fire  their  cannon  at  a  great  rate  ; 
whereupon  the  little  man  jumped  up,  and  cried 
out, 

"  My  time  is  come  !  I  must  be  off,  for  I  have  a 
great  many  visits  to  pay  before  sunrise." 

Then  he  kissed  the  yffrouw  with  a  hearty  smack, 
just  as  doth  the  illustrious  Rip  Van  Dam,  on  the 
like  occasions ;  patted  little  Nicholas  on  the  head, 
and  gave  him  his  blessing ;  after  which  he  did  in 
continently  leap  up  the  chimney  and  disappear. 
Then  they  knew  it  was  the  good  St.  Nicholas,  and 
rejoiced  mightily  in  the  visit  he  had  paid  them, 
looking  upon  it  as  an  earnest  that  their  troubles 
were  over. 

The  next  morning  the  prudent  housewife,  ac 
cording  to  custom,  got  up  before  the  dawn  of  day 
to  put  her  house  in  order,  and  when  she  came  to 
sweep  the  floor,  was  surprised  to  hear  something 
jingle  just  like  money.  Then  opening  the  embers, 
11* 


126  CLAAS    SCHLASCIIENSCHLINGER. 

the  sticks  which  the  good  saint  had  thrown  upon 
the  fire  again  blazed  out,  and  she  descried  a  large 
purse,  which,  on  examination,  was  found  filled  with 
golden  ducats.  Whereupon  she  called  out  to 
Claas,  and  they  examined  the  purse,  and  found 
fastened  to  it  a  paper  bearing  this  legend  : — 


While  they  stood  in  joyful  wonder,  they  heard  a 
great  knocking  and  confusion  of  tongues  outside 
the  door,  and  the  people  calling  aloud  upon  Claas 
Schlaschenschlinger  to  come  forth ;  whereupon  he 
went  forth,  and,  to  his  great  astonishment,  found 
that  his  little  wooden  house  had  disappeared  in 
the  night,  and  in  its  place  was  standing  a  gorgeous 
and  magnificent  mansion  of  Dutch  bricks,  two  sto 
ries  high,  with  three  windows  in  front,  all  of  a  dif 
ferent  size  ;  and  a  door  cut  right  out  of  the  corner, 
just  as  it  is  seen  at  this  blessed  day. 

The  neighbours  wondered  much,  and  it  was 
whispered  among  them,  that  the  fiend  had  helped 
Claas  to  this  great  domicil,  which  was  one  of  the 
biggest  in  the  city,  and  almost  equal  to  that  of  Ba- 
rendt  Roeloffsen.  But  when  Claas  told  them  of 
the  visit  of  St.  Nicholas,  and  showed  them  the 
purse  of  golden  ducats,  with  the  legend  upon  it, 
they  thought  better  of  it,  and  contented  themselves 
with  envying  him  heartil/  his  good  fortune. 

I  shall  not  relate  how  Claas  prospered  ever  af 
terwards,  in  spite  of  his  enemies  the  burgomasters, 


CLAAS    SCHLASCHENS«HLINGER.  127 

who,  at  last,  were  obliged  to  admit  him  as  one  of 
their  number ;  or  how  little  Aintjie  held  up  her 
head  among  the  highest ;  or  how  Claas  ever  after 
eschewed  the  lapstone,  and,  like  a  worshipful  mag 
istrate,  took  to  bettering  the  condition  of  mankind, 
till  at  length  he  died,  and  was  gathered  to  his  fore 
fathers,  full  of  years  and  honours. 

All  I  shall  say  is,  that  the  great  house  in  New- 
street  continued  in  the  family  for  several  genera 
tions,  until  a  degenerate  descendant  of  Claas,  being 
thereunto  incited  by  the  d — 1,  did  sell  it  to  another 
degenerate  splutterkin,  who  essayed  to  pull  it 
down.  But  mark  what  followed.  No  sooner  had 
the  workmen  laid  hands  on  it,  than  the  brickbats 
began  to  fly  about  at  such  a  rate,  that  they  all  came 
away  faster  than  they  went;  some  with  broken 
heads,  and  others  with  broken  bones,  and  not  one 
could  ever  be  persuaded  to  meddle  with  it  after 
wards. 

And  let  this  be  a  warning  to  any  one  who  shall 
attempt  to  lay  their  sacrilegious  hands  on  the  LAST 
OF  THE  DUTCH  HOUSES,  the  gift  of  St.  Nicholas, 
for  whoever  does  so,  may  calculate,  to  a  certainty, 
on  getting  well  peppered  with  brickbats,  I  can  tell 
them. 


THE 


REVENGE  OF  SAINT  NICHOLAS. 


A    TALE    FOR    THE    HOLYDAYS. 


EVERYBODY  knows  that  in  the  famous  city  of 
New- York,  whose  proper  name  is  New- Amster 
dam,  the  excellent  St.  Nicholas — who  is  worth  a 
dozen  St.  Georges  and  dragons  to  boot,  and  who, 
if  every  tub  stood  on  its  right  bottom,  would  be  at 
the  head  of  the  Seven  Champions  of  Christendom — 
I  say,  everybody  knows  the  excellent  St.  Nicholas, 
^in  holyday  times,  goes  about  among  the  people  in 
/  the  middle  of  the  night,  distributing  all  sorts  of 
\    toothsome  and  becoming   gifts  to  the  good   boys 
\  and  girls  in  this  his  favourite  city.     Some  say  that 
r  he  comes  down  the  chimneys  in  a  little    Jersey 
wagon ;  others,  that  he  wears  a  pair  of  Holland 
skates,  with  which  he  travels  like  the  wind ;  and 
others,  who  pretend  to  have  seen  him,  maintain 
that  he  has  lately  adopted  a  locomotive,  and  was 
once  actually  detected   on   the   Albany  railroad. 
But  this  last  assertion  is  looked  upon  to  be  entirely 
fabulous,  because  St.  Nicholas  has  too  much  dis 
cretion  to  trust  himself  in  such  a  newfangled  jarvie ; 
and  so  I  leave  this  matter  to  be  settled  by  whom- 


THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.    NICHOLAS.  J  29 

soever  will  take  the  trouble.  My  own  opinion  is, 
that  his  favourite  mode  of  travelling  is  on  a  canal, 
the  motion  and  speed  of  which  aptly,,  comport 
with  the  philosophic  dignity  of  his  character.  But 
this  is  not  material,  and  I  will  no  longer  detain  my 
readers  with  extraneous  and  irrelevant  matters,  as 
is  too  much  the  fashion  with  our  statesmen,  orators, 
biographers,  and  story  tellers. 

It  was  in  the  year  one  thousand  seven  hundred 
and  sixty,  or  sixty-one,  for  the  most  orthodox 
chronicles  differ  in  this  respect ;  but  it  was  a  very 
remarkable  year,  and  it  was  called  annus  mirabi- 
lis  on  that  account.  It  was  said  that  several  peo 
ple  were  detected  in  speaking  the  truth  about  that 
time ;  that  nine  staid,  sober,  and  discreet  widows, 
who  had  sworn  on  an  anti-masonic  almanac  never 
to  enter  a  second  time  into  the  holy  state,  were 
snapped  up  by  young  husbands  before  they  knew 
what  they  were  about ;  that  six  venerable  bachelors 
wedded  as  many  buxom  young  belles,  and,  it  is  re 
ported,  were  afterwards  sorry  for  what  they  had 
done ;  that  many  people  actually  went  to  church, 
from  motives  of  piety  ;  and  that  a  great  scholar, 
who  had  written  a  book  in  support  of  certain 
opinions,  was  not  only  convinced  of  his  error, 
but  acknowledged  it  publicly  afterwards.  No 
wonder  the  year  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
sixty,  if  that  was  the  year,  was  called  annus  mira- 
bilis ! 

What  contributed  to  render  this  year  still  more 
remarkable,  was  the  building  of  six  new  three-story 
p  3 


130  THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

brick  houses  in  the  city,  and  three  persons  setting 
up  equipages,  who,  I  cannot  find,  ever  failed  in 
business  afterwards,  or  compounded  with  their 
creditors  at  a  pistareen  in  the  pound.  It  is,  more 
over,  recorded  in  the  annals  of  the  horticultural  so 
ciety  of  that  day,  which  were  written  on  a  cabbage 
leaf,  as  is  said,  that  a  member  produced  a  forked 
radish,  of  such  vast  dimensions,  that  being  dressed 
up  in  fashionable  male  attire  at  the  exhibition,  it 
was  actually  mistaken  for  a  travelled  beau  by  sev 
eral  inexperienced  young  ladies,  who  pined  away 
for  love  of  its  beautiful  complexion,  and  were 
changed  into  daffadowndillies.  Some  maintained 
it  was  a  mandrake,  but  it  was  finally  detected  by 
an  inquest  of  experienced  matrons.  No  wonder 
the  year  seventeen  hundred  and  sixty  was  called 
annus  mirdbilis  ! 

But  the  most  extraordinary  thing  of  all,  was  the 
confident  assertion  that  there  was  but  one  gray 
mare  within  the  bills  of  mortality  ;  and,  incredible 
as  it  may  appear,  she  was  the  wife  of  a  responsible 
citizen,  who,  it  was  affirmed,  had  grown  rich  by 
weaving  velvet  purses  out  of  sows'  ears.  But  this 
we  look  upon  as  being  somewhat  of  the  character 
of  the  predictions  of  almanac  makers.  Certain 
it  is,  however,  that  Amos  Shuttle  possessed  the 
treasure  of  a  wife  who  was  shrewdly  suspected  of 
having  established  within  doors  a  system  of  gov 
ernment  not  laid  down  in  Aristotle  or  the  Abbe 
Sieyes,  who  made  a  constitution  for  every  day  in 
the  year,  and  two  for  the  first  of  April. 


THE    REVENGE    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS.  131 

Amos  Shuttle,  though  a  mighty  pompous  little 
man  out  of  doors,  was  the  meekest  of  human  crea 
tures  within.  He  belonged  to  that  class  of  people 
who  pass  for  great  among  the  little,  and  little 
among  the  great ;  and  he  would  certainly  have 
been  master  in  his  own  house  had  it  not  been  for  a 
woman  !  We  have  read  somewhere  that  no  wise 
woman  ever  thinks  her  husband  a  demigod.  If 
so,  it  is  a  blessing  that  there  are  so  few  wise  wo 
men  in  the  world. 

Amos  had  grown  rich,  Heaven  knows  how — he 
did  net  know  himself;  but,  what  was  somewhat  ex 
traordinary,  he  considered  his  wealth  a  signal  proof 
of  his  talents  and  sagacity,  and  valued  himself  ac 
cording  to  the  infallible  standard  of  pounds,  shillings, 
and  pence.  But  though  he  lorded  it  without,  he 
was,  as  we  have  just  said,  the  most  gentle  of  men 
within  doors.  The  moment  he  stepped  inside  of 
his  own  house,  his  spirit  cowered  down,  like  that 
of  a  pious  man  entering  a  church ;  he  felt  as  if  he 
was  in  the  presence  of  a  superior  being — to  wit, 
Mrs.  Abigail  Shuttle.  He  was,  indeed,  the  meek 
est  of  beings  at  home,  except  Moses  ;  and  Sir  An 
drew  Aguecheek's  song,  which  Sir  Toby  Belch  de 
clared  "  would  draw  nine  souls  out  of  one  weaver," 
would  have  failed  in  drawing  half  a  one  out  of 
Amos.  The  truth  is,  his  wife,  who  ought  to  have 
known,  affirmed  he  had  no  more  soul  than  a  mon 
key  ;  but  he  was  the  only  man  in  the  city  thus  cir 
cumstanced  at  the  time  we  speak  of.  No  wonder, 


132  THE    REVENGE    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS. 

therefore,  the  year  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
sixty  was  called  annus  mirabilis  ! 

Such  as  he  was,  Mr.  Amos  Shuttle  waxed  richer 
and  richer  every  day,  insomuch  that  those  who  en 
vied  his  prosperity  were  wont  to  say,  "  that  he  had 
certainly  been  born  with  a  dozen  silver  spoons  in 
his  mouth,  or  such  a  great  blockhead  would  never 
have  got  together  such  a  heap  of  money."  When 
he  had  become  worth  ten  thousand  pounds,  he 
launched  his  shuttle  magnanimously  out  of  the 
window,  ordered  his  weaver's  beam  to  be  split  up 
for  oven  wood,  and  Mrs.  Amos  turned  his  weaver's 
shop  into  a  boudoir.  Fortune  followed  him  faster 
than  he  ran  away  from  her.  In  a  few  years  the 
ten  thousand  doubled,  and  in  a  few  more  trebled, 
quadrupled — in  short,  Amos  could  hardly  count  his 
money. 

"  What  shall  we  do  now,  my  dear  ?"  asked  Mrs. 
Shuttle,  who  never  sought  his  opinion,  that  I  can 
learn,  except  for  the  pleasure  of  contradicting  him. 

"  Let  us  go  and  live  in  the  country,  and  enjoy 
ourselves,"  quoth  Amos. 

"  Go  into  the  country  !  go  to — "  I  could  never 
satisfy  myself  what  Mrs.  Shuttle  meant ;  but  she 
stopped  short,  and  concluded  the  sentence  with  a 
withering  look  of  scorn,  that  would  have  cowed  the 
spirits  of  nineteen  weavers. 

Amos  named  all  sorts  of  places,  enumerated  all 
sorts  of  modes  of  life  he  could  think  of,  and  every 
pleasure  that  might  enter  into  the  imagination  of  a 


THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  133 

man  without  a  soul.     His  wife  despised  them  all ; 
she  would  not  hear  of  them. 

"Well,  my  dear,  suppose  you  suggest  some 
thing  ;  do  now,  Abby,"  at  length  said  Amos,  in  a 
coaxing  whisper ;  "  will  you,  my  onydoney  ?" 

"  Ony  fiddlestick !  I  wonder  you  repeat  such 
vulgarisms.  But  if  I  must  say  what  I  should  like, 
I  should  like  to  travel." 

"  Well,  let  us  go  and  make  a  tour  as  far  as  Ja 
maica,  or  Hackensack,  or  Spiking-devil.  There  is 
excellent  fishing  for  striped  bass  there." 

"  Spiking-devil !"  screamed  Mrs.  Shuttle  ;  "  an't 
you  ashamed  to  swear  so,  you  wicked  mortal !  I 
won't  go  to  Jamaica,  nor  Hackensack  among  the 
Dutch  Hottentots,  nor  to  Spiking-devil  to  catch 
striped  bass.  I'll  go  to  Europe  !" 

If  Amos  had  possessed  a  soul  it  would  have 
jumped  out  of  its  skin  at  the  idea  of  going  beyond 
seas.  He  had  once  been  on  the  sea-bass  banks, 
and  got  a  seasoning  there  ;  the  very  thought  of  which 
made  him  sick.  But,  as  he  had  no  soul,  there  was 
no  great  harm  done. 

When  Mrs.  Shuttle  said  a  thing,  it  was  settled. 
They  went  to  Europe,  taking  their  only  son  with 
them  ;  the  lady  ransacked  all  the  milliners'  shops  in 
Paris,  and  the  gentleman  visited  all  the  restaura 
teurs.  He  became  such  a  desperate  connoisseur 
and  gourmand,  that  he  could  almost  tell  an  omelette 
au  jambon  from  a  gammon  of  bacon.  After  con 
summating  the  polish,  they  came  home,  the  lady 
with  the  newest  old  fashions,  and  the  weaver  with 
12 


134  THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

a  confirmed  preference  of  potage  a  la  Turque  over 
pepper-pot.  It  is  said  the  city  trembled,  as  with  an 
earthquake,  when  they  landed ;  but  the  notion  was 
probably  superstitious. 

They  arrived  near  the  close  of  the  year,  the  mem 
orable  year,  the  annus  mirabilis,  one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  sixty.  Everybody  that  had  ever  known 
the  Shuttles  flocked  to  see  them,  or  rather  to  see 
what  they  had  brought  with  them ;  and  such  was 
the  magic  of  a  voyage  to  Europe,  that  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Amos  Shuttle,  who  had  been  nobodies  when  they 
departed,  became  somebodies  when  they  returned, 
and  mounted  at  once  to  the  summit  of  ton. 

"  You  have  come  in  good  time  to  enjoy  the  fes 
tivities  of  the  holydays,"  said  Mrs.  Hubblebubble, 
an  old  friend  of  Amos  the  weaver  and  his  wife. 

"  We  shall  have  a  merry  Christmas  and  a  happy 
Newyear,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Doubletrouble,  another 
old  acquaintance  of  old  times. 

"  The  holydays,"  drawled  Mrs.  Shuttle ;  "  the 
holydays  ?  Christmas  and  Newyear  ?  Pray  what 
are  they  ?" 

It  is  astonishing  to  see  how  people  lose  their 
memories  abroad  sometimes.  They  often  forget 
their  old  friends,  old  customs,  and  occasionally 
themselves. 

"  Why,  la  !  now,  who'd  have  thought  it  ?"  cried 
Mrs.  Doubletrouble  ;  "  why,  sure  you  haven't  forgot 
the  oily  cooks  and  the  mince  pies,  the  merry  meet 
ings  of  friends,  the  sleigh-rides,  the  Kissing  Bridge, 
and  the  family  parties  ?" 


THE   REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  135 

"  Family  parties  !"  shrieked  Mrs.  Shuttle,  and 
held  her  salts  to  her  nose  ;  "  family  parties  !  I  never 
heard  of  anything  so  Gothic  in  Paris  or  Rome  ;  and 
oily  cooks — oh  shocking  !  and  mince  pies — detes 
table  !  and  throwing  open  one's  doors  to  all  one's 
old  friends,  whom  one  wishes  to  forget  as  soon  as 
possible.  Oh  \  the  idea  is  insupportable  !"  and  again 
she  held  the  salts  to  her  nose. 

Mrs.  Hubblebubble  and  Mrs.  Doubletrouble  found 
they  had  exposed  themselves  sadly,  and  were  quite 
ashamed.  A  real,  genteel,  well-bred,  enlightened 
lady  of  fashion  ought  to  have  no  rule  of  conduct — 
no  conscience,  but  Paris — whatever  is  fashionable 
there  is  genteel — whatever  is  not  fashionable  is 
vulgar.  There  is  no  other  standard  of  right,  and 
no  other  eternal  fitness  of  things.  At  least  so  thought 
Mrs.  Hubblebubble  and  Mrs.  Doubletrouble. 

"  But  is  it  possible  that  all  these  things  are  out 
of  fashion  abroad  ?"  asked  the  latter,  beseechingly. 

"  They  never  were  in,"  said  Mrs.  Amos  Shuttle. 
"  For  my  part,  I  mean  to  close  my  doors  and  win 
dows  on  Newyear's  day — I'm  determined." 

"  And  so  am  I,"  said  Mrs.  Hubblebubble. 

"  And  so  am  I,"  said  Mrs.  Doubletrouble. 

And  it  was  settled  that  they  should  make  a  com 
bination  among  themselves  and  their  friends,  to  put 
down  the  ancient  and  good  customs  of  the  city,  and 
abolish  the  sports  and  enjoyments  of  the  jolly  New- 
year.  The  conspirators  then  separated,  each  to 
pursue  her  diabolical  designs  against  oily  cooks, 


136  THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

mince  pies,  sleigh  ridings,  sociable  visitings,  and 
family  parties. 

Now  the  excellent  St.  Nicholas,  who  knows  well 
what  is  going  on  in  every  house  in  the  city,  though, 
like  a  good  and  honourable  saint,  he  never  betrays 
any  family  secrets,  overheard  these  wicked  women 
plotting  against  his  favourite  anniversary,  and  he 
said  to  himself, 

"  Vuur  en  Vlammen  !  but  I'll  be  even  with  you, 
mein  vrouw?  So  he  determined  he  would  play 
these  conceited  and  misled  women  a  trick  or  two 
before  he  had  done  with  them. 

It  was  now  the  first  day  of  the  new  year,  and 
Mrs.  Amos  Shuttle,  and  Mrs.  Doubletrouble,  and 
Mrs.  Hubblebubble,  and  all  their  wicked  abetters, 
had  shut  up  their  doors  and  windows,  so  that  when 
their  old  friends  called  they  could  not  get  into  their 
houses.  Moreover,  they  had  prepared  neither  mince 
pies,  nor  oily  cooks,  nor  crullers,  nor  any  of  the 
good  things  consecrated  to  St.  Nicholas  by  his  pious 
and  well-intentioned  votaries,  and  they  were  might 
ily  pleased  at  having  been  as  dull  and  stupid  as 
owls,  while  all  the  rest  of  the  city  were  as  merry 
as  crickets,  chirping  and  frisking  in  the  warm  chim 
ney  corner.  Little  did  they  think  what  horrible 
judgments  were  impending  over  them,  prepared  by 
the  wrath  of  the  excellent  St.  Nicholas,  who  was 
resolved  to  make  an  example  of  them  for  attempting 
to  introduce  their  newfangled  corruptions  in  place 
of  the  ancient  customs  of  his  favourite  city.  These 


THE   REVENGE    OP   ST.  NICHOLAS.  137 

• 

wicked  women  never  had  another  comfortable  sleep 
in  their  lives  ! 

The  night  was  still,  clear,  and  frosty — the  earth 
was  everywhere  one  carpet  of  snow,  and  looked 
just  like  the  ghost  of  a  dead  world,  wrapped  in  a 
white  winding  sheet ;  the  moon  was  full,  round,  and 
of  a  silvery  brightness,  and  by  her  discreet  silence 
afforded  an  example  to  the  rising  generation  of 
young  damsels,  while  the  myriads  of  stars  that  mul 
tiplied  as  you  gazed  at  them,  seemed  as  though  they 
were  frozen  into  icicles,  they  looked  so  cold,  and 
sparkled  with  such  a  glorious  lustre.  The  streets 
and  roads  leading  from  the  city  were  all  alive  with 
sleighs,  filled  with  jovial  souls,  whose  echoing 
laughter  and  cheerful  songs,  mingled  with  a  thou 
sand  merry  bells,  that  jingled  in  harmonious  disso 
nance,  giving  spirit  to  the  horses  and  animation  to 
the  scene.  In  the  license  of  the  season,  hallowed 
by  long  custom,  each  of  the  sleighs  saluted  the 
others  in  passing  with  a  "  Happy  Newyear,"  a 
merry  jest,  or  mischievous  gibe,  exchanged  from 
one  gay  party  to  another.  All  was  life,  motion,  and 
merriment ;  and  as  old  frostbitten  Winter,  aroused 
from  his  trance  by  the  rout  and  revelry  around, 
raised  his  weatherbeaten  head  to  see  what  was 
passing,  he  felt  his  icy  blood  warming  and  coursing 
through  his  veins,  and  wished  he  could  only  over 
take  the  laughing  buxom  Spring,  that  he  might  dance 
a  jig  with  her,  and  be  as  frisky  as  the  best  of  them. 
But  as  the  old  rogue  could  not  bring  this  desirable 
matter  about,  he  contented  himself  with  calling  for 
12* 


138  THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

a  jolly  bumper  of  cocktail,  and  drinking  a  swinging 
draught  to  the  health  of  the  blessed  St.  Nicholas, 
and  those  who  honour  the  memory  of  the  president 
of  good  fellows. 

All  this  time  the  wicked  women  and  their  abetters 
lay  under  the  malediction  of  the  good  saint,  who 
caused  them  to  be  bewitched  by  an  old  lady  from 
Salem.  Mrs.  Amos  Shuttle  could  not  sleep,  be 
cause  something  had  whispered  in  her  apprehen 
sive  ear,  that  her  son,  her  only  son,  whom  she  had  en 
gaged  to  the  daughter  of  Count  Grenouille,  in  Paris, 
then  about  three  years  old,  was  actually  at  that  mo 
ment  crossing  Kissing  Bridge,  in  company  with  lit 
tle  Susan  Varian,  and  some  others  besides.  Now 
Susan  was  the  fairest  little  lady  of  all  the  land  ;  she 
had  a  face  and  an  eye  just  like  the  Widow  Wad- 
man,  in  Leslie's  charming  picture ;  a  face  and  an 
eye  which  no  reasonable  man  under  Heaven  could 
resist,  except  my  Uncle  Toby — beshrew  him  and 
his  fortifications,  I  say  !  She  was,  moreover,  a  good 
little  girl,  and  an  accomplished  little  girl — but,  alas  ! 
she  had  not  mounted  to  the  step  in  Jacob's  ladder 
of  fashion,  which  qualifies  a  person  for  the  heaven 
of  high  ton,  and  Mrs.  Shuttle  had  not  been  to  Europe 
for  nothing.  She  would  rather  have  seen  her  son 
wedded  to  dissipation  and  profligacy  than  to  Susan 
Varian ;  and  the  thought  of  his  being  out  sleigh- 
riding  with  her,  was  worse  than  the  toothache.  It 
kept  her  awake  all  the  livelong  night ;  and  the  only 
consolation  she  had  was  scolding  poor  Amos,  be 
cause  the  sleigh  bells  made  such  a  noise. 


THE   REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  139 

As  for  Mrs.  Hubblebubble  and  Mrs.  Double- 
trouble,  they  neither  of  them  got  a  wink  of  sleep 
during  a  whole  week,  for  thinking  of  the  beautiful 
French  chairs  and  damask  curtains  Mrs.  Shuttle  had 
brought  from  Europe.  They  forthwith  besieged 
their  good  men,  leaving  them  no  rest  until  they  sent 
out  orders  to  Paris  for  just  such  rich  chairs  and  cur 
tains  as  those  of  the  thrice  happy  Mrs.  Shuttle, 
from  whom  they  kept  the  affair  a  profound  secret, 
each  meaning  to  treat  her  to  an  agreeable  surprise. 
In  the  mean  while  they  could  not  rest  for  fear  the 
vessel  which  was  to  bring  these  treasures  might  be 
lost  on  her  passage.  Such  was  the  dreadful  judg 
ment  inflicted  on  them  by  the  good  St.  Nicholas. 

The  perplexities  of  Mrs.  Shuttle  increased  daily. 
In  the  first  place,  do  all  she  could,  she  could  not 
make  Amos  a  fine  gentleman.  This  was  a  meta 
morphosis  which  Ovid  would  never  have  dreamed 
of.  He  would  be  telling  the  price  of  everything  in 
his  house,  his  furniture,  his  wines,  and  his  dinners, 
insomuch  that  those  who  envied  his  prosperity,  or, 
perhaps,  only  despised  his  pretensions,  were  wont 
to  say,  after  eating  his  venison  and  drinking  his 
old  Madeira,  "  that  he  ought  to  have  been  a  tavern 
keeper,  he  knew  so  well  how  to  make  out  a  bill." 
Mrs.  Shuttle  once  overheard  a  speech  of  this  kind, 
and  the  good  St.  Nicholas  himself,  who  had  brought 
it  about,  almost  felt  sorry  for  the  mortification  she 
endured  on  the  occasion. 

Scarcely  had  she  got  over  this,  when  she  was 
invited  to  a  ball,  by  Mrs.  Hubblebubble,  and  the 


140  THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

first  thing  she  saw  on  entering  the  drawing  room, 
was  a  suit  of  damask  curtains  and  chairs,  as  much 
like  her  own  as  two  peas,  only  the  curtains  had  far 
handsomer  fringe.  Mrs.  Shuttle  came  very  near 
fainting  away,  but  escaped  for  that  time,  determin 
ing  to  mortify  this  impudent  creature,  by  taking  not 
the  least  notice  of  her  finery.  But  St.  Nicholas 
ordered  it  otherwise,  so  that  she  was  at  last  obliged 
to  acknowledge  they  were  very  elegant  indeed. 
Nay,  this  was  not  the  worst,  for  she  overheard  one 
lady  whisper  to  another,  that  Mrs.  Hubblebubble's 
curtains  were  much  richer  than  Mrs.  Shuttle's. 

"  Oh,  I  dare  say,"  replied  the  other — "  I  dare  say 
Mrs.  Shuttle  bought  them  second  hand,  for  her  hus 
band  is  as  mean  as  pursley." 

This  was  too  much.  The  unfortunate  woman 
was  taken  suddenly  ill — called  her  carriage,  and 
went  home,  where  it  is  supposed  she  would  have 
died  that  evening  had  she  not  wrought  upon  Amos 
to  promise  her  an  entire  new  suit  of  French  furni 
ture  for  her  drawing  room  and  parlour  to  boot,  be 
sides  a  new  carriage.  But  for  all  this  she  could 
not  close  her  eyes  that  night  for  thinking  of  the 
"  second-hand  curtains." 

Nor  was  the  wicked  Mrs.  Doubletrouble  a  whit 
better  off,  when  her  friend  Mrs.  Hubblebubble 
treated  her  to  the  agreeable  surprise  of  the  French 
window  curtains  and  chairs.  "  It  is  too  bad — too 
bad,  I  declare,"  said  she  to  herself;  "  but  I'll  pay 
her  off  soon."  Accordingly  she  issued  invitations 
for  a  grand  ball  and  supper,  at  which  both  Mrs. 


THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  141 

Shuttle  and  Mrs.  Hubblebubble  were  struck  dumb 
at  beholding  a  suit  of  curtains  and  a  set  of  chairs 
exactly  of  the  same  pattern  with  theirs.  The  shock 
was  terrible,  and  it  is  impossible  to  say  what  might 
have  been  the  consequences,  had  not  the  two  ladies 
all  at  once  thought  of  uniting  in  abusing  Mrs.  Dou- 
bletrouble  for  her  extravagance. 

"I  pity  poor  Mr.  Doubletrouble,"  said  Mrs. 
Shuttle,  shrugging  her  shoulders  significantly,  and 
glancing  at  the  room. 

"  And  so  do  I,"  said  Mrs.  Hubblebubble,  doing 
the  same. 

Mrs.  Doubletrouble  had  her  eye  upon  them,  and 
enjoyed  their  mortification  until  her  pride  was 
brought  to  the  ground  by  a  dead  shot  from  Mrs. 
Shuttle,  who  was  heard  to  exclaim,  in  reply  to  a 
lady  who  observed  the  chairs  and  curtains  were 
very  handsome, 

"  Why,  yes ;  but  they  have  been  out  of  fashion 
in  Paris  a  long  time  ;  and,  besides,  really  they  are 
getting  so  common,  that  I  intend  to  have  mine  re 
moved  to  the  nursery." 

Heavens !  what  a  blow  !  Poor  Mrs.  Double- 
trouble  hardly  survived  it.  Such  a  night  of  misery 
as  the  wicked  woman  endured  almost  made  the 
good  St.  Nicholas  regret  the  judgment  he  had 
passed  upon  these  mischievous  and  conceited  fe 
males.  But  he  thought  to  himself  he  would  per 
severe  until  he  had  made  them  a  sad  example  to 
all  innovators  upon  the  ancient  customs  of  our  fore 
fathers. 


142  THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

Thus  were  these  wicked  and  miserable  women 
spurred  on  by  witchcraft  from  one  piece  of  extrava 
gance  to  another,  and  a  deadly  rivalship  grew  up 
between  them,  which  destroyed  their  own  happi 
ness  and  that  of  their  husbands.  Mrs.  Shuttle's 
new  carriage  and  drawing-room  furniture  in  due 
time  were  followed  by  similar  extravagances  on  the 
part  of  the  two  other  wicked  women,  who  had  con 
spired  against  the  hallowed  institutions  of  St.  Nich 
olas  ;  and  soon  their  rivalship  came  to  such  a  height 
that  neither  of  them  had  a  moment's  rest  or  com 
fort  from  that  time  forward.  But  they  still  shut 
their  doors  on  the  jolly  anniversary  of  St.  Nich 
olas,  though  the  old  respectable  burghers  and  their 
wives,  who  had  held  up  their  heads  time  out  of 
mind,  continued  the  good  custom,  and  laughed  at 
the  presumption  of  these  upstart  interlopers,  who 
were  followed  only  by  a  few  people  of  silly  pre 
tensions,  who  had  no  more  soul  than  Amos  Shuttle 
himself.  The  three  wicked  women  grew  to  be 
almost  perfect  skeletons,  on  account  of  the  vehe 
mence  with  which  they  strove  to  outdo  each  other, 
and  the  terrible  exertions  necessary  to  keep  up  the 
appearance  of  being  the  best  friends  in  the  world. 
In  short,  they  became  the  laughingstock  of  the 
town  ;  and  sensible,  well-bred  folks  cut  their  ac 
quaintance,  except  when  they  sometimes  accepted 
an  invitation  to  a  party,  just  to  make  merry  with 
their  folly  and  conceitedness. 

The  excellent  St.  Nicholas,  finding  they  still 
persisted  in  their  opposition  to  his  rites  and  cere- 


THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  143 

monies,  determined  to  inflict  on  them  the  last  and 
worst  punishment  that  can  befall  the  sex.  He  de 
creed  that  they  should  be  deprived  of  all  the  de 
lights  springing  from  the  domestic  affections,  and 
all  taste  for  the  innocent  and  virtuous  enjoyments 
of  a  happy  fireside.  Accordingly,  they  lost  all 
relish  for  home ;  were  continually  gadding  about 
from  one  place  to  another  in  search  of  pleasure, 
and  worried  themselves  to  death  to  find  happiness 
where  it  is  never  to  be  found.  Their  whole  lives 
became  one  long  series  of  disappointed  hopes, 
galled  pride,  and  gnawing  envy.  They  lost  their 
health,  they  lost  their  time,  and  their  days  became 
days  of  harassing  impatience,  their  nights  nights 
of  sleepless,  feverish  excitement,  ending  in  weari 
ness  and  disappointment.  The  good  saint  some 
times  felt  sorry  for  them,  but  their  continued  ob 
stinacy  determined  him  to  persevere  in  his  plan  to 
punish  the  upstart  pride  of  these  rebellious  females. 

Young  Shuttle,  who  had  a  soul,  which  I  suppose 
he  inherited  from  his  mother,  all  this  while  con 
tinued  his  attentions  to  little  Susan  Varian,  which 
added  to  the  miseries  inflicted  on  his  wicked  mo 
ther.  Mrs.  Shuttle  insisted  that  Amos  should 
threaten  to  disinherit  his  son,  unless  he  gave  up 
this  attachment. 

"  Lord  bless  your  soul,  Abby,"  said  Amos, 
"  what's  the  use  of  my  threatening,  the  boy  knows 
as  well  as  I  do  that  I've  no  will  of  my  own.  Why, 
bless  my  soul,  Abby — " 

"feless  your  soul!"  interrupted   Mrs.  Shuttle; 


144  THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

"  I  wonder  who'd  take  the  trouble  to  bless  it  but 
yourself?  However,  if  you  don't  I  will." 

Accordingly,  she  threatened  the  young  man 
with  being  disinherited  unless  he  turned  his  back 
on  little  Susan  Varian,  which  no  man  ever  did 
without  getting  a  heartache. 

"  If  my  father  goes  on  as  he  has  done  lately," 
sighed  the  youth,  "  he  won't  have  anything  left  to 
disinherit  me  of  but  his  affection,  I  fear.  But  if  he 
had  millions  I  would  not  abandon  Susan." 

"  Are  you  not  ashamed  of  such  a  lowlived  at 
tachment  ?  You,  that  have  been  to  Europe  !  But, 
once  for  all,  remember  this,  renounce  this  lowborn 
upstart,  or  quit  your  father's  home  for  ever." 

"  Upstart !"  thought  young  Shuttle  ;  "  one  of  the 
oldest  families  in  the  city."  He  made  his  mother 
a  respectful  bow,  bade  Heaven  bless  her,  and  left 
the  house.  He  was,  however,  met  by  his  father 
at  the  door,  who  said  to  him, 

"  Johnny,  I  give  my  consent ;  but  mind,  don't 
tell  your  mother  a  word  of  the  matter.  I'll  let  her 
know  I've  a  soul  as  well  as  other  people  ;"  and  he 
tossed  his  head  like  a  war  horse. 

The  night  after  this  Johnny  was  married  to  little 
Susan,  and  the  blessing  of  affection  and  beauty 
lighted  upon  his  pillow.  Her  old  father,  who  was 
in  a  respectable  business,  took  his  son-in-law  into 
partnership,  and  they  prospered  so  well  that  in  a 
few  years  Johnny  was  independent  of  all  the  world, 
with  the  prettiest  wife  and  children  in  the  land. 
But  Mrs.  Shuttle  was  inexorable,  while  the  know- 


THE   REVENGE    OP    ST.  NICHOLAS.  145 

ledge  of  his  prosperity  and  happiness  only  worked 
her  up  to  a  higher  pitch  of  anger,  and  added  to  the 
pangs  of  jealousy  perpetually  inflicted  on  her  by 
the  rivalry  of  Mrs.  Hubblebubble  and  Mrs.  Double- 
trouble,  who  suffered  under  the  like  infliction  from 
the  wrathful  St.  Nicholas,  who  was  resolved  to 
make  them  an  example  to  all  posterity. 

No  fortune,  be  it  ever  so  great,  can  stand  the 
eternal  sapping  of  wasteful  extravagance,  engen 
dered  and  stimulated  by  the  baleful  passion  of  envy. 
In  less  than  ten  years  from  the  hatching  of  the  dia 
bolical  conspiracy  of  these  three  wicked  women 
against  the  supremacy  of  the  excellent  St.  Nicho 
las,  their  spendthrift  rivalship  had  ruined  the  for 
tunes  of  their  husbands,  and  entailed  upon  them 
selves  misery  and  remorse.  Rich  Amos  Shuttle 
became  at  last  as  poor  as  a  church  mouse,  and 
would  have  been  obliged  to  take  to  the  loom  again 
in  his  old  age,  had  not  Johnny,  now  rich,  and  a 
worshipful  magistrate  of  the  city,  afforded  him  and 
his  better  half  a  generous  shelter  under  his  own 
happy  roof.  Mrs.  Hubblebubble  and  Mrs.  Double- 
trouble  had  scarcely  time  to  condole  with  Mrs. 
Shuttle,  and  congratulate  each  other,  when  their 
husbands  went  the  way  of  all  flesh,  that  is  to  say, 
failed  for  a  few  tens  of  thousands,  and  called  their 
creditors  together  to  hear  the  good  news.  The 
two  wicked  women  lived  long  enough  after  this  to 
repent  of  their  offence  against  St.  Nicholas  ;  but 
they  never  imported  any  more  French  curtains,  and 
13  c 


146  THE    REVENGE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

at  last  perished  miserably  in  an  attempt  to  set  the 
fashions  in  Pennypot  alley. 

Mrs.  Abigail  Shuttle  might  have  lived  happily 
the  rest  of  her  life  with  her  children  and  grandchil 
dren,  who  all  treated  her  with  reverent  courtesy 
and  affection,  now  that  the  wrath  of  the  mighty  St. 
Nicholas  was  appeased  by  her  exemplary  punish 
ment.  But  she  could  not  get  over  her  bad  habits 
and  feelings,  or  forgive  her  lovely  little  daughter- 
in-law  for  treating  her  so  kindly  when  she  so  lit 
tle  deserved  it.  She  gradually  pined  away ;  and 
though  she  revived  at  hearing  of  the  catastrophe  of 
Mrs.  Hubblebubble  and  Mrs.  Doubletrouble,  it  was 
only  for  a  moment.  The  remainder  of  the  life  of 
this  wicked  woman  was  a  series  of  disappoint 
ments  and  heartburnings,  and  when  she  died,  Amos 
tried  to  shed  a  few  tears,  but  he  found  it  impossi 
ble,  I  suppose,  because,  as  his  wife  always  said, 
"  he  had  no  soul." 

Such  was  the  terrible  revenge  of  St.  Nicholas, 
which  ought  to  be  a  warning  to  all  who  attempt  to 
set  themselves  up  against  the  venerable  customs 
of  their  ancestors,  and  backslide  from  the  hallowed 
institutions  of  the  blessed  saint,  to  whose  good 
offices,  without  doubt,  it  is  owing  that  this  his  fa 
vourite  city  has  transcended  all  others  of  the  uni 
verse  in  beautiful  damsels,  valorous  young  men, 
mince  pies,  and  Newyear  cookies.  The  catastro 
phe  of  these  three  wicked  women  had  a  wonderful 
influence  in  the  city,  insomuch  that  from  this  time 


THE    REVENGE    OP    ST.  NICHOLAS.  147 

forward,  no  gray  mares  were  ever  known,  no 
French  furniture  was  ever  used,  and  no  woman  was 
hardy  enough  to  set  herself  up  in  opposition  to  the 
good  customs  of  St.  Nicholas.  And  so,  wishing 
many  happy  Newyears  to  all  my  dear  countrywo 
men  and  countrymen,  saving  those  who  shut  their 
doors  to  old  friends,  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  on 
that  hlessed  anniversary,  which  makes  more  glad 
hearts  than  all  others  put  together — I  say,  wishing 
a  thousand  happy  Newyears  to  all,  with  this  single 
exception,  I  lay  down  my  pen,  with  a  caution  to 
all  wicked  women  to  beware  of  the  revenge  of  St. 
Nicholas. 


G  2 


THE    ORIGIN 

OF 

THE    BAKERS'    DOZEN, 


LITTLE  Brom  Boomptie,  or  Boss  Boomptie,  as 
he  was  commonly  called  by  his  apprentices  and 
neighbours,  was  the  first  man  that  ever  baked  New- 
year  cakes  in  the  good  city  of  New- Amsterdam. 
It  is  generally  supposed  that  he  was  the  inventor 
of  those  excellent  and  respectable  articles.  How 
ever  this  may  be,  he  lived  and  prospered  in  the  lit 
tle  Dutch  house  in  William-street,  called,  time  out 
of  mind,  Knickerbocker  Hall,  just  at  the  outskirts 
of  the  good  town  of  New- Amsterdam. 

Boomptie  was  a  fat  comfortable  creature,  with  a 
capital  pair  of  oldfashioned  legs;  a  full,  round, 
good-natured  face  ;  a  corporation  like  unto  one  of 
his  plump  loaves ;  and  as  much  honesty  as  a 
Turkish  baker,  who  lives  in  the  fear  of  having  his 
ears  nailed  to  his  own  door  for  retailing  bad  bread. 
He  wore  a  low-crowned,  broad-brimmed  beaver ; 
a  gray  bearskin  cloth  coat,  waistcoat,  and  breeches, 
and  gray  woollen  stockings,  summer  and  winter,  all 
the  year  round.  The  only  language  he  spoke,  un 
derstood,  or  had  the  least  respect  for,  was  Dutch — • 


DOZEN.          149 

and  the  only  books  he  ever  read  or  owned,  were  a 
Dutch  Bible,  with  silver  clasps  and  hinges,  and  a 
Dutch  history  of  the  Duke  of  Alva's  bloody  wars 
in  the  Low  Countries.  Boss  Boomptie  was  a  pious 
man,  of  simple  habits  and  simple  character ;  a  be 
liever  in  "  demonology  and  witchcraft ;"  and  as 
much  afraid  of  spooks  as  the  mother  that  bore  him. 
It  ran  in  the  family  to  be  bewitched,  and  for  three 
generations  the  Boompties  had  been  very  much 
pestered  with  supernatural  visitations.  But  for  all 
this  they  continued  to  prosper  in  the  world,  inso 
much  that  Boss  Boomptie  daily  added  a  piece  of 
wampum  or  two  to  his  strong  box.  He  was 
blessed  with  a  good  wife,  who  saved  the  very  parings 
of  her  nails,  and  three  plump  boys,  after  whom  he 
modelled  his  gingerbread  babies,  and  who  were 
every  Sunday  zealously  instructed  never  to  pass  a 
pin  without  picking  it  up  and  bringing  it  home  to 
their  mother. 

It  was  on  Newyear's  eve,  in  the  year  1655,  and 
the  good  city  of  New-Amsterdam,  then  under  the 
special  patronage  of  the  blessed  St.  Nicholas,  was 
as  jovial  and  wanton  as  hot  spiced  rum  and  long 
abstinence  from  fun  and  frolic  could  make  it.  It 
is  worth  while  to  live  soberly  and  mind  our  busi 
ness  all  the  rest  of  the  year,  if  it  be  only  to  enjoy  the 
holydays  at  the  end  with  a  true  zest.  St.  Nicholas, 
thrice  blessed  soul !  was  riding  up  one  chimney 
and  down  another  like  a  locomotive  engine  in  his 
little  one-horse  wagon,  distributing  cakes  to  the  good 
boys,  and  whips  to  the  bad  ones  ;  and  the  laugh  of 
13* 


150  ORIGIN    OP   THE    BAKERS'   DOZEN. 

the  good  city,  which  had  been  pent  up  all  the  year, 
now  burst  forth  with  an  explosion  that  echoed  even 
untd  Breuckelen  and  Communipaw. 

Boss  Boomptie,  who  never  forgot  the  main 
chance,  and  knew  from  experience  that  Newy ear's 
eve  was  a  shrewd  time  for  selling  cakes,  joined 
profit  and  pleasure  on  this  occasion.  He  was  one 
minute  in  his  shop,  dealing  out  cakes  to  his  cus 
tomers,  and  the  next  laughing,  and  tippling,  and  jig 
ging,  and  frisking  it  with  his  wife  and  children  in 
the  little  back  room,  the  door  of  which  had  a  pane 
of  glass  that  commanded  a  full  view  of  the  shop. 
Nobody,  that  is,  no  genuine  disciple  of  jolly  St. 
Nicholas,  ever  went  to  bed  till  twelve  o'clock  on 
Newyear's  eve.  The  Dutch  are  eminently  a  sober, 
discreet  folk ;  but  somehow  or  other,  no  people 
frolic  so  like  the  very  dickens,  when  they  are  once 
let  loose,  as  your  very  sober  and  discreet  bodies. 

By  twelve  o'clock  the  spicy  beverage,  sacred  to 
holydays  at  that  time,  began  to  mount  up  into  Boss 
Boomptie's  head,  and  he  was  vociferating  a  Dutch 
ditty  in  praise  of  St.  Nicholas  with  marvellous  dis 
cordance,  when  just  as  the  old  clock  in  one  corner 
of  the  room  struck  the  hour  that  ushers  in  the  new 
year,  a  loud  knock  was  heard  on  the  counter,  which 
roused  the  dormant  spirit  of  trade  within  his  bo 
som.  He  went  into  the  shop,  where  he  found  a 
little  ugly  old  thing  of  a  woman,  with  a  sharp  chin, 
resting  on  a  crooked  black  stick,  which  had  been 
burned  in  the  fire  and  then  polished ;  two  high  sharp 
cheek  bones ;  two  sharp  black  eyes ;  skinny  lips, 


ORIGIN    OF   THE    BAKERS*  DOZEN.  151 

and  a  most  diabolical  pair  of  leather  spectacles  on 
a  nose  ten  times  sharper  than  her  chin. 

"  I  want  a  dozen  Newyear  cookies,"  screamed 
she,  in  a  voice  sharper  than  her  nose. 

"  Vel,  den,  you  needn't  sbeak  so  loud,"  replied 
Boss  Boomptie,  whose  ear  being  just  then  attuned 
to  the  melody  of  his  own  song,  was  somewhat  out 
raged  by  this  shrill  salutation. 

"  I  want  a  dozen  Newyear  cookies,"  screamed 
she  again,  ten  times  louder  and  shriller  than  ever. 

"  Duyvel — I  an't  teaf  den,"  grumbled  the  worthy 
man,  as  he  proceeded  to  count  out  the  cakes,  which 
the  other  very  deliberately  counted  after  him. 

"  I  want  a  dozen',"  screamed  the  little  woman ; 
"  here  is  only  twelve." 

"  Vel,  den,  and  what  de  duyvel  is  dwalf  but  a 
dozen  ?"  said  Boomptie. 

"  I -tell  you  I  want  one  more,"  screamed  she,  in  a 
voice  that  roused  Mrs.  Boomptie  in  the  back  room, 
who  came  and  peeped  through  the  pane  of  glass, 
as  she  often  did  when  she  heard  the  boss  talking  to 
the  ladies. 

Boss  Boomptie  waxed  wroth,  for  he  had  a  rea 
sonable  quantity  of  hot  spiced  rum  in  his  noddle, 
which  predisposes  a  man  to  valour. 

"  Vel,  den,"  said  he,  "  you  may  co  to  de  duyvel 
and  get  anoder,  for  you  won't  get  it  here." 

Boomptie  was  not  a  stingy  man ;  on  the  con 
trary,  he  was  very  generous  to  the  pretty  young 
damsels  who  came  to  buy  cakes,  and  often  gave 
them  two  or  three  extra  for  a  smack,  which  made 


152  ORIGIN    OF    THE    BAKERS*   DOZEN. 

Mrs.  Boomptie  peevish  sometimes,  and  caused  her 
to  watch  at  the  little  pane  of  glass  when  she  ought 
to  have  been  minding  her  business  like  an  honest 
woman. 

But  this  old  hag  was  as  ugly  as  sin,  and  the  little 
baker  never  in  his  whole  life  could  find  in  his  heart 
to  be  generous  to  an  ugly  woman,  old  or  young. 

"  In  my  country  they  always  give  thirteen  to  the 
dozen,"  screamed  the  ugly  woman  in  the  leather 
spectacles. 

"  And  where  de  duyvel  is  your  gountry  ?"  asked 
Boomptie. 

"  It  is  nobody's  business,"  screeched  the  old  wo 
man.  "But  will  you  give  me  another  cake,  once 
for  all?" 

"Not  if  it  would  save  me  and  all  my  chineration 
from  peing  pewitched  and  pedemonologized  dime 
out  of  mind,"  cried  he,  in  a  great  passion. 

What  put  it  into  his  head  to  talk  in  this  way  I 
don't  know,  but  he  might  better  have  held  his 
tongue.  The  old  woman  gave  him  three  stivers 
for  his  cakes,  and  went  away,  grumbling  something 
about  "living  to  repent  it,"  which  Boss  Boomptie 
didn't  understand  or  care  a  fig  about.  He  was 
chock  full  of  Dutch  courage,  and  defied  all  the  ugly 
old  women  in  Christendom.  He  put  his  three  stivers 
in  the  till  and  shut  up  his  shop,  determined  to  enjoy 
the  rest  of  the  night  without  further  molestation. 

While  he  was  sitting  smoking  his  pipe,  and  now 
and  then  sipping  his  beverage,  all  at  once  he  heard 
a  terrible  jingling  of  money  in  his  shop,  whereupon 


DOZEN.  153 

he  thought  some  losel  caitiff  was  busy  with  his  lit 
tle  till.  Accordingly,  priming  himself  with  another 
reinforcement  of  Dutch  courage,  he  took  a  pine 
knot,  for  he  was  too  economical  to  burn  candles  at 
that  late  hour,  and  proceeded  to  investigate.  His 
money  was  all  safe,  and  the  till  appeared  not  to 
have  been  disturbed. 

"Duyvel,"  quoth  the  little  baker  man,  "I  pe- 
lieve  mine  vrouw  and  I  have  bote  cot  a  zinging  in 
our  heads." 

He  had  hardly  turned  his  back  when  the  same 
jingling  began  again,  so  much  to  the  surprise  of 
Boss  Boomptie,  that  had  it  not  been  for  his  invin 
cible  Dutch  courage,  he  would,  as  it  were,  have 
been  a  little  frightened.  But  he  was  not  in  the 
least ;  and  again  went  and  unlocked  the  till,  when 
what  was  his  astonishment  to  see  the  three  diabol 
ical  stivers,  received  from  the  old  woman,  dancing, 
and  kicking  up  a  dust  among  the  coppers  and  wam 
pum  with  wonderful  agility. 

"  Wat  donder  is  dat  /"  exclaimed  he,  sorely  per 
plexed  ;  "  de  old  duyvel  has  cot  indo  dat  old  sin 
ner's  stivers,  I  dink."  He  had  a  great  mind  to 
throw  them  away,  but  he  thought  it  a  pity  to  waste 
so  much  money ;  so  he  kept  them  locked  up  all 
night,  enjoining  them  to  good  behaviour,  with  a  de 
sign  to  spend  them  the  next  day  in  another  jollifi 
cation.  But  the  next  day  they  were  gone,  and  so 
was  the  broomstick  with  which  it  was  the  custom 
to  sweep  out  the  shop  every  morning.  Some  of 
the  neighbours  coming  home  late  the  night  before, 
G  3 


154 

on  being  informed  of  the  "  abduction"  of  the  broom 
stick,  deposed  and  said,  they  had  seen  an  old  wo 
man  riding  through  the  air  upon  just  such  another, 
right  over  the  top  of  the  little  bakehouse  ;  whereat 
Boss  Boomptie,  putting  these  odds  and  ends  to 
gether,  did  tremble  in  his  heart,  and  he  wished  to 
himself  that  he  had  given  the  ugly  old  woman  thir 
teen  to  the  dozen. 

Nothing  particular  came  to  pass  the  next  day, 
except  that  now  and  then  the  little  Boompties  com 
plained  of  having  pins  stuck  in  their  backs,  and  that 
their  cookies  were  snatched  away  by  some  one  un 
known.  On  examination  it  was  found  that  no 
marks  of  the  pins  were  to  be  seen ;  and  as  to  the 
cookies,  the  old  black  woman  of  the  kitchen  de 
clared  she  saw  an  invisible  hand  just  as  one  of  the 
children  lost  his  commodity. 

"  Den  I  am  pewitched,  zure  enough  !"  cried 
Boomptie,  in  despair,  for  he  had  had  too  much  of 
"  demonology  and  witchcraft"  in  the  family  not  to 
know  when  he  saw  them,  just  as  well  as  he  did  his 
own  face  in  the  Collect. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  year,  the  'prentice  boys 
all  returned  to  their  business,  and  Boomptie  once 
more  solaced  himself  with  the  baking  of  the  staff  of 
life.  The  reader  must  know  that  it  is  the  custom  of 
bakers  to  knead  a  great  batch  at  a  time,  in  a  mighty 
bread  tray,  into  which  they  throw  two  or  three  little 
apprentice  boys  to  paddle  about,  like  ducks  in  a 
mill  pond,  whereby  it  is  speedily  amalgamated,  and 
set  to  rising  in  due  time.  When  the  little  caitiffs 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  BAKERS'  DOZEN.     155 

began  their  gambols  in  this  matter  they  one  and  all 
stuck  fast  in  the  dough,  as  though  it  had  been  so 
much  pitch,  and,  to  the  utter  dismay  of  honest 
Boomptie,  behold  the  whole  batch  rose  up  in  a 
mighty  mass,  with  the  boys  sticking  fast  on  the 
top  of  it ! 

"  Wat  blikslager!"  exclaimed  little  Boomptie, 
as  he  witnessed  this  catastrophe  ;  "  de  duyvel  ish 
cot  into  de  yeast  dis  dime,  I  dink." 

The  bread  continued  to  rise  till  it  lifted  the  roof 
off  the  bakehouse,  with  the  little  'prentice  boys  on 
the  top,  and  the  bread  tray  following  after.  Boss 
Boomptie  and  his  wife  watched  this  wonderful  ri 
sing  of  the  bread  in  dismay,  and  in  proof  of  the 
poor  woman's  being  bewitched,  it  was  afterwards 
recollected  that  she  uttered  not  a  single  word  on 
this  extraordinary  occasion.  The  bread  rose  and 
rose,  until  it  finally  disappeared,  boys  and  all,  be 
hind  the  Jersey  hills.  If  such  things  had  been 
known  of  at  that  time,  it  would  have  been  taken 
for  a  balloon  ;  as  it  was,  the  people  of  Bergen  and 
Comrnunipaw  thought  that  it  was  a  water  spout. 

Little  Boss  Boomptie  was  disconsolate  at  the 
loss  of  his  bread  and  his  'prentice  boys,  whom  he 
never  expected  to  see  again.  However,  he  was  a 
stirring  body,  and  set  himself  to  work  to  prepare 
another  batch,  seeing  his  customers  must  be  sup 
plied  in  spite  of  "  witchcraft  or  demonology."  To 
guard  against  such  another  rebellious  rising,  he  de-1 
termined  to  go  through  the  process  down  in  the  cel 
lar,  and  turn  his  bread  tray  upside  down.  The 


156      ORIGIN  OF  THE  BAKERS*  DOZEN. 

bread,  instead  of  rising,  began  to  sink  into  the  earth 
so  fast,  that  Boss  Boomptie  had  just  time  to  jump 
off  before  it  entirely  disappeared  in  the  ground, 
which  opened  and  shut  just  like  a  snuifbox. 

"  Wat  blikslager  is  dat !"  exclaimed  he,  out 
of  breath  ;  "  my  pread  rises  downward  dis  dime,  I 
dink.  My  customers  must  go  widout  to-day." 

By-and-by  his  customers  came  for  hot  rolls  and 
muffins,  but  some  of  them  had  gone  up  and  some 
down,  as  little  Boss  Boomptie  related  after  the 
manner  just  described.  What  is  very  remarkable, 
nobody  believed  him ;  and  doubtless,  if  there  had 
been  any  rival  baker  in  New- Amsterdam,  the  boss 
would  have  lost  all  his  customers.  Among  those 
that  called  on  this  occasion,  was  the  ugly  old  wo 
man  with  the  sharp  eyes,  nose,  chin,  voice,  and 
leather  spectacles. 

"  I  want  a  dozen  Newyear  cookies  !"  screamed 
she,  as  before. 

"  Vuur  en  vlammen  !"  muttered  he,  as  he  count 
ed  out  the  twelve  cakes. 

"  I  want  one  more  !"  screamed  she. 
"  Den  you  may  co  to  de  duyvel  and  kit  it,  I  say, 
for  not  anoder  shall  you  haf  here,  I  dell  you." 

So  the  old  woman  took  her  twelve  cakes,  and 
went  out  grumbling,  as  before.  All  the  time  she 
staid,  Boomptie's  old  dog,  who  followed  him  wher 
ever  he  went,  growled  and  whined,  as  it  were,  to 
himself,  and  seemed  mightily  relieved  when  she 
went  away.  That  very  night,  as  the  little  baker 
was  going  to  see  one  of  his  old  neighbours  at  the 


DOZEN.  157 

Maiderfs  Valley,  then  a  little  way  out  of  town, 
walking,  as  he  always  did,  with  his  hands  behind 
him,  every  now  and  then  he  felt  something  as  cold 
as  death  against  them,  which  he  could  never  ac 
count  for,  seeing  there  was  not  a  soul  with  him  but 
his  old  dog.  Moreover,  Mrs.  Boomptie,  having 
bought  half  a  pound  of  tea  at  a  grocery  store,  and 
put  it  into  her  pocket,  did  feel  a  twitching  and  jerk 
ing  of  the  paper  of  tea  in  her  pocket,  every  step  she 
went.  The  faster  she  ran  the  quicker  and  stronger 
was  the  twitching  and  jerking,  so  that  when  the 
good  woman  got  home  she  was  nigh  fainting  away. 
On  her  recovery  she  took  courage,  and  pulled  the 
tea  out  of  her  pocket,  and  laid  it  on  the  table,  when 
behold  it  began  to  move  by  fits  and  starts,  jumped 
off  the  table,  hopped  out  of  doors,  all  alone  by  it 
self,  and  jigged  away  to  the  place  from  whence  it 
came.  The  grocer  brought  it  back  again,  but  Mad 
am  Boomptie  looked  upon  the  whole  as  a  judgment 
for  her  extravagance,  in  laying  out  so  much  money 
for  tea,  and  refused  to  receive  it  again.  The  gro 
cer  assured  her  that  the  strange  capers  of  the  bun 
dle  were  owing  to  his  having  forgot  to  cut  the  twine 
with  which  he  had  tied  it ;  but  the  good  woman 
looked  upon  this  as  an  ingenious  subterfuge,  and 
would  take  nothing  but  her  money.  When  the 
husband  and  wife  came  to  compare  notes,  they  both 
agreed  they  were  certainly  bewitched.  Had  there 
been  any  doubt  of  the  matter,  subsequent  events 
would  soon  have  put  it  to  rest. 

That  very  night  Mrs.  Boomptie  was  taken  af- 
14 


158      ORIGIN  OF  THE  BAKERS'  DOZEN. 

ter  a  strange  way.  Sometimes  she  would  laugh 
about  nothing,  and  then  she  would  cry  about  no 
thing  ;  then  she  would  set  to  work  and  talk  about 
nothing  for  a  whole  hour  without  stopping,  in  a  lan 
guage  nobody  could  understand ;  and  then,  all  at 
once,  her  tongue  would  cleave  to  the  roof  of  her 
mouth,  so  that  it  was  impossible  to  force  it  away. 
When  this  fit  was  over  she  would  get  up  and  dance 
double  trouble,  till  she  tired  herself  out,  when  she 
fell  asleep,  and  waked  up  quite  rational.  It  was 
particularly  noticed  that  when  she  talked  loudest 
and  fastest,  her  lips  remained  perfectly  closed,  with 
out  motion,  and  her  mouth  wide  open,  so  that  the 
words  seemed  to  come  from  down  her  throat.  Her 
principal  talk  was  railing  against  Dominie  Laidlie, 
the  good  pastor  of  Garden-street  Church,  whence 
everybody  concluded  that  she  was  possessed  by  a 
devil.  Sometimes  she  got  hold  of  a  pen,  and 
though  she  had  never  learned  to  write,  would 
scratch  and  scrawl  certain  mysterious  and  diabol 
ical  figures,  that  nobody  could  understand,  and 
everybody  said  must  mean  something. 

As  for  little  Boss  Boomptie,  he  was  worse  off  than 
his  wife.  He  was  haunted  by  an  invisible  hand, 
which  played  him  all  sorts  of  scurvy  tricks.  Stand 
ing  one  morning  at  his  counter,  talking  to  one  of 
the  neighbours,  he  received  a  great  box  on  the  ear, 
whereat  being  exceeding  wroth,  he  returned  it  with 
such  interest  on  the  cheek  of  his  neighbour,  that  he 
laid  him  flat  on  the  floor.  His  friend  hereupon 
took  the  law  of  him,  and  proved,  to  the  satisfaction 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  BAKERS'  DOZEN.     159 

of  the  court,  that  he  had  both  hands  in  his  breeches 
pockets  at  the  time  Boss  Boomptie  said  he  gave 
him  the  box  on  the  ear.  The  magistrate  not  being 
able  to  come  at  the  truth  of  the  matter,  fined  them 
each  twenty-five  guilders  for  the  use  of  the  do 
minie. 

A  dried  codfish  was  one  day  thrown  at  his  head, 
and  the  next  minute  his  walking  stick  fell  to  beat 
ing  him,  though  nobody  seemed  to  have  hold  of  it 
A  chair  danced  about  the  room,  and  at  last  alighted 
on  the  dinner  table,  and  began  to  eat  with  such  a 
good  appetite,  that  had  not  the  children  snatched 
some  of  the  dinner  away,  there  would  have  been 
none  left.  The  old  cow  one  night  jumped  over  the 
moon,  and  a  pewter  dish  ran  fairly  off  with  a  horn 
spoon,  which  seized  a  cat  by  the  tail,  and  away  they 
all  went  together,  as  merry  as  crickets.  Some 
times,  when  Boss  Boomptie  had  money,  or  cakes, 
or  perhaps  a  loaf  of  bread  in  his  hand,  instead  of 
putting  them  in  their  proper  places,  he  would  throw 
them  into  the  fire,  in  spite  of  his  teeth,  and  then 
the  invisible  hand  would  beat  him  with  a  bag  of 
flour,  till  he  was  as  white  as  a  miller.  As  for  keep 
ing  his  accounts,  that  was  out  of  the  question  • 
whenever  he  sat  himself  down  to  write  his  ink  horn 
was  snatched  away  by  the  invisible  hand,  and  by- 
and-by  it  would  come  tumbling  down  the  chimney. 
Sometimes  an  old  dishcloth  would  be  pinned  to 
the  skirt  of  his  coat,  and  then  a  great  diabolical 
laugh  heard  under  the  floor.  At  night  he  had  a 
pretty  time  of  it.  His  nightcap  was  torn  off  his 


160 

head,  his  hair  pulled  out  by  handfuls,  his  face 
scratched,  and  his  ears  pinched  as  if  with  a  red-hot 
pincers.  If  he  went  out  in  the  yard  at  night,  he 
was  pelted  with  brickbats,  sticks,  stones,  and  all 
sorts  of  filthy  missives  ;  and  if  he  staid  at  home,  the 
ashes  were  blown  upon  his  supper  ;  and  old  shoes, 
instead  of  plates,  seen  on  the  table.  One  of  the 
frying  pans  rang  every  night  of  itself  for  a  whole 
hour,  and  a  three-pronged  fork  stuck  itself  volun 
tarily  into  Boss  Boomptie's  back,  without  hurting 
him  in  the  least.  But  what  astonished  the  neigh 
bours  more  than  all,  the  little  man,  all  at  once,  took 
to  speaking  in  a  barbarous  and  unknown  jargon, 
which  was  afterwards  found  out  to  be  English. 

These  matters  frightened  some  of  the  neighbours 
and  scandalized  others,  until  at  length  poor  Boomp 
tie's  shop  was  almost  deserted.  People  were  jeal 
ous  of  eating  his  bread,  for  fear  of  being  bewitched. 
Nay,  more  than  one  little  urchin  complained  griev 
ously  of  horrible,  out  of  the  way  pains  in  the  stom 
ach,  after  eating  two  or  three  dozen  of  his  New- 
year  cookies. 

Things  went  on  in  this  way  until  Newyear's  eve 
came  round  again,  when  Boss  Boomptie  was  sitting 
behind  his  counter,  which  was  wont  to  be  thronged 
with  customers  on  this  occasion,  but  was  now  quite 
deserted.  While  thinking  on  his  present  miserable 
state  and  future  prospects,  all  of  a  sudden  the  little 
ugly  old  woman,  with  a  sharp  nose,  sharp  chin, 
sharp  eyes,  sharp  voice,  and  leather  spectacles, 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  BAKERS*  DOZEN.      161 

again  stood  before  him,  leaning  on  her  crooked  black 
cane. 

"  Ben  je  bedondered  ?"  exclaimed  Boss  Boomp- 
tie,  "  what  to  you  want  now  ?" 

"  I  want  a  dozen  Newyear  cookies  !"  screamed 
the  old  creature. 

The  little  man  counted  out  twelve,  as  before. 

"  I  want  one  more  !"  screamed  she,  louder  than 
ever. 

"  Men  weet  hoe  een  koe  een  haas  vangen  kan  !" 
cried  the  boss,  in  a  rage  ;  "  den  want  will  pe  your 
masder." 

She  offered  him  six  stivers,  which  he  indignantly 
rejected,  saying, 

"  I  want  none  of  your  duyvel's  stuyvers — begone, 
duyvel's  huysvrouw  !" 

The  old  woman  went  her  way,  mumbling  and 
grumbling  as  usual. 

"  By  Saint  Johannes  de  Dooper,"  quoth  Boss 
Boomptie,  "  put  she's  a  peaudy  !" 

That  night,  and  all  the  week  after,  the  brickbats 
flew  about  Knickerbocker  Hall  like  hail,  insomuch 
that  Boss  Boomptie  marvelled  where  they  could 
all  come  from,  until  one  morning,  after  a  terrible 
shower  of  bricks,  he  found,  to  his  great  grief 
and  dismay,  that  his  oven  had  disappeared ;  next 
went  the  top  of  his  chimney  ;  and  when  that  was 
gone,  these  diabolical  sinners  began  at  the  extreme 
point  of  the  gable  end,  and  so  went  on  picking  at 
the  two  edges  downward,  until  they  looked  just 
14* 


162 

like  the  teeth  of  a  saw,  as  may  be  still  seen  in  some 
of  our  old  Dutch  houses. 

"  Onbegrypelik !"  cried  Boss  Boomptie,  "  put  it's 
too  pad  to  have  my  prains  peat  out  wid  my  own 
prickpats." 

About  the  same  time  a  sober  respectable  cat, 
that  for  years  had  done  nothing  but  sit  purring  in 
the  chimney  corner,  all  at  once  got  the  duyvel  in 
her,  and  after  scratching  the  poor  man  half  to  death, 
jumped  out  of  the  chimney  and  disappeared.  A 
Whitehall  boatman  afterwards  saw  her  in  Butter 
milk  Channel,  with  nothing  but  the  tail  left,  swim 
ming  against  the  tide  as  easy  as  kiss  your  hand. 
Poor  Mrs.  Boomptie  had  no  peace  of  her  life,  what 
with  pinchings,  stickings  of  needles,  and  talking 
without  opening  her  mouth.  But  the  climax  of  the 
malice  of  the  demon  which  beset  her  was  in  at  last 
tying  up  her  tongue,  so  that  she  could  not  speak  at 
all,  but  did  nothing  but  sit  crying  and  wringing  her 
hands  in  the  chimney  corner. 

These  carryings  on  brought  round  Newy ear's 
eve  again,  when  Boss  Boomptie  thought  he  would 
have  a  frolic,  "in  spite  of  de  duyvel,"  as  he  said, 
which  saying  was,  somehow  or  other,  afterwards 
applied  to  the  creek  at  Kingsbridge.  So  he  com 
manded  his  wife  to  prepare  him  a  swinging  mug  of 
hot  spiced  rum,  to  keep  up  his  courage  against  the 
assaults  of  the  brickbats.  But  what  was  the  dis 
may  of  the  little  man  when  he  found  that  every  time 
he  put  the  beverage  to  his  lips  he  received  a  great 
box  on  the  ear,  the  mug  was  snatched  away  by  an 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  BAKERS'  DOZEN.     163 

invisible  hand,  and  every  single  drop  drank  out  of 
it  before  it  came  to  Boss  Boomptie's  turn.  Then 
as  if  it  was  an  excellent  joke,  he  heard  a  most  dia 
bolical  laugh  down  in  the  cellar. 

"  Goeden  Hemel !  Is  het  mogelyk !"  exclaimed 
the  little  man  in  despair.  This  was  attacking 
him  in  the  very  intrenchments  of  his  heart.  It  was 
worse  than  the  brickbats. 

"  Saint  Nicholas  !  Saint  Nicholas  !  what  will  be 
come  of  me — what  sal  ich  doon,  mynheer  ?" 

Scarcely  had  he  uttered  this  pathetic  appeal, 
when  there  was  a  sound  of  horses'  hoofs  in  the 
chimney,  and  presently  a  light  wagon,  drawn  by  a 
little,  fat,  gray  'Sopus  pony,  came  trundling  into  the 
room,  loaded  with  all  sorts  of  knickknacks.  It  was 
driven  by  a  jolly,  fat,  little  rogue  of  a  fellow,  with 
a  round  sparkling  eye,  and  a  mouth  which  would 
certainly  have  been  laughing  had  it  not  been  for 
a  glorious  Meershaum  pipe,  which  would  have 
chanced  to  fall  out  in  that  case.  The  little  rascal 
had  on  a  three-cornered  cocked  hat,  decked  with  old 
gold  lace  ;  a  blue  Dutch  sort  of  a  short  pea  jacket, 
red  waistcoat,  breeks  of  the  same  colour,  yellow 
stockings,  and  honest  thick-soled  shoes,  ornamented 
with  a  pair  of  skates.  Altogether  he  was  a  queer 
figure — but  there  was  something  so  irresistibly  jolly 
and  good-natured  in  his  face,  that  Boss  Boomptie 
felt  his  heart  incline  towards  the  stranger  as  soon 
as  he  saw  him. 

"  Orange  Boven  !"  cried  the  good  saint,  pulling 
off  his  cocked  hat,  and  making  a  low  bow  to 


164 

Mrs.  Boomptie,  who  sat  tonguetied  in  the  chimney 
corner. 

"Wat  donderdag  is  dat?"  said  Boss  Boomptie, 
speaking  for  his  wife,  which  made  the  good  woman 
very  angry,  that  he  should  take  the  words  out  of  her 
mouth. 

"You  called  on  Saint  Nicholas.  Here  am  I," 
quoth  the  jolly  little  saint.  "  In  one  word — for  I 
am  a  saint  of  few  words,  and  have  my  hands  full 
of  business  to-night — in  one  word,  tell  me  what 
you  want." 

"  I  am  pewitched,"  quoth  Boss  Boomptie.  "  The 
duyvel  is  in  me,  my  house,  my  wife,  my  Newyear 
cookies,  and  my  children.  What  shall  I  do  ?" 

"  When  you  count  a  dozen  you  must  count  thir 
teen,"  answered  the  wagon  driver,  at  the  same  time 
cracking  his  whip,  and  clattering  up  the  chimney, 
more  like  a  little  duyvel  than  a  little  saint. 

"Wat  blixum!"  muttered  Boss  Boomptie,  "when 
you  count  a  dozen  you  must  count  dirdeen  !  je  mag 
even  wel  met  un  stokje  in  de  goot  roeron  !  I  never 
heard  of  such  counting.  By  Saint  Johannes  de 
Dooper,  put  Saint  Nicholas  is  a  great  plockhead  !" 

Just  as  he  uttered  this  blasphemy  against  the 
excellent  Saint  Nicholas,  he  saw  through  the  pa-ne 
of  glass,  in  the  door  leading  from  the  spare  room  to 
the  shop,  the  little  ugly  old  woman,  with  the  sharp 
eyes,  sharp  nose,  sharp  chin,  sharp  voice,  and  lea 
ther  spectacles,  alighting  from  a  broomstick,  at  the 
street  door. 

"Dere  is  de  duyvel's  kint  come  again,"  quoth 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  BAKERS*  DOZEN.      165 

he,  in  one  of  his  cross  humours,  which  was  aggra 
vated  by  his  getting  just  then  a  great  box  on  the 
ear  from  the  invisible  hand.  However,  he  went 
grumbling  into  the  shop,  for  it  was  part  of  his  reli 
gion  never  to  neglect  a  customer,  let  the  occasion 
be  what  it  might. 

"  I  want  a  dozen  Newyear  cookies,"  screamed 
the  old  beauty,  as  usual,  and  as  usual  Boss  Boomp- 
tie  counted  out  twelve. 

"  I  want  another  one,"  screamed  she  still  louder. 
.  "  Aha !"  thought  Boss  Boomptie,  doubtless  in 
spired  by  the  jolly  little  caitiff,  Saint  Nicholas — 
"  Aha !  Het  is  goed  visschen  in  troebel  water — 
when  you  count  dwalf,  you  must  count  dirdeen. 
Ha — ha  !  ho — ho — ho  !"  And  he  counted  out  the 
thirteenth  cooky  like  a  brave  fellow. 

The  old  woman  made  him  a  low  courtesy,  and 
laughed  till  she  might  have  shown  her  teeth,  if  she 
had  had  any. 

"  Friend  Boomptie,"  said  she,  in  a  voice  exhibit 
ing  the  perfection  of  a  nicely  modulated  scream — 
"  Friend  Boomptie,  I  love  such  generous  little  fel 
lows  as  you,  in  my  heart.  I  salute  you,"  and  she 
advanced  to  kiss  him.  Boss  Boomptie  did  not  at 
all  like  the  proposition  ;  but,  doubtless  inspired  by 
Saint  Nicholas,  he  submitted  with  indescribable 
grace. 

At  that  moment,  an  explosion  was  heard  inside 
the  little  glass  pane,  and  the  voice  of  Mrs.  Boomptie 
crying  out, 


166 

"  You  false-hearted  villain,  have  I  found  out  your 
tricks  at  last !" 

"  De  Philistyner  Onweetende  !"  cried  Boss 
Boomptie.  "  She's  come  to  her  speech  now  !" 

"  The  spell  is  broken  !"  screamed  the  old  woman 
with  the  sharp  eyes,  nose,  chin,  and  voice.  "  The 
spell  is  broken,  and  henceforward  a  dozen  is  thir 
teen,  and  thirteen  is  a  dozen  !  There  shall  be  thir 
teen  Newyear  cookies  to  the  dozen,  as  a  type  of  the 
thirteen  mighty  states  that  are  to  arise  out  of  the 
ruins  of  the  government  of  faderland  !" 

Thereupon  she  took  a  Newyear  cake  bearing 
the  effigy  of  the  blessed  St.  Nicholas,  and  caused 
Boss  Boomptie  to  swear  upon  it,  that  for  ever  after 
wards  twelve  should  be  thirteen,  and  thirteen  should 
be  twelve.  After  which,  she  mounted  her  broom 
stick  and  disappeared,  just  as  the  little  old  Dutch 
clock  struck  twelve.  From  that  time  forward,  the 
spell  that  hung  over  the  fortunes  of  little  Boss  Boomp 
tie  was  broken  ;  and  ever  after  he  became  illustri 
ous  for  baking  the  most  glorious  Newyear  cookies  in 
our  country.  Everything  became  as  before  :  the 
little  'prentice  boys  returned,  mounted  on  the  batch 
of  bread,  and  their  adventures  may,  peradventure, 
be  told  some  other  time.  Finally,  from  that  day 
forward  no  baker  of  New-Amsterdam  was  ever 
bewitched,  at  least  by  an  ugly  old  woman,  and  a 
bakers  dozen  has  been  always  counted  as  thirteen. 


THE    GHOST. 


SOME  time  in  the  year  1800  or  1801,  I  am  not 
certain  which,  a  man  of  the  name  of  William  Mor 
gan — I  don't  mean  the  person  whose  "  abduction" 
has  made  so  much  noise  in  the  world — enlisted  on 

board  the  United  States  frigate for  a  three 

years'  cruise  in  the  Mediterranean.  He  was  an 
awful-looking  person,  six  feet  four  inches  high ;  a 
long  pale  visage  deeply  furrowed  with  wrinkles ; 
sunken  eyes  far  up  towards  his  forehead  ;  black 
exuberant  hair  standing  on  end  as  if  he  was  always 
frightened  at  something ;  a  sharp  chin  of  a  length 
proportioned  to  his  height ;  teeth  white,  but  very 
irregular;  and  the  colour  of  his  eyes  what  the 
writers  on  supernatural  affairs  call  very  singular 
and  mysterious.  Besides  this,  his  voice  was  hol 
low  and  sepulchral ;  on  his  right  arm  were  engraved 
certain  mysterious  devices,  surmounted  with  the  let 
ters  E.  M. ;  and  his  tobacco  box  was  of  iron.  His 
everyday  dress  was  a  canvass  hat  with  a  black 
riband  band,  a  blue  jacket,  white  trousers,  and 
leather  shoes.  On  Sundays  he  wore  a  white 
beaver,  which,  among  sailors,  bespoke  something 
extraordinary,  and  on  rainy  days  a  pea  jacket  too 


168  THE    GHOST. 

short  by  half  a  yard.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that 
Morgan  entered  on  Friday;  that  the  frigate  was 
launched  on  Friday  ;  that  the  master  carpenter  who 
built  her  was  born  on  Friday  ;  and  that  the  squad 
ron  went  to  sea  on  Friday.  All  these  singular 
coincidences,  combined  with  his  mysterious  ap 
pearance,  caused  the  sailors  to  look  upon  Morgan 
with  some  little  degree  of  wonder. 

During  the  voyage  to  Gibraltar,  Morgan's  con 
duct  served  to  increase  the  impression  his  appear 
ance  had  made  on  the  crew.  He  sometimes  went 
without  eating  for  several  days  together,  at  least 
no  one  ever  saw  him  eat ;  and,  if  he  ever  slept  at 
all,  it  was  without  shutting  his  eyes  or  lying  down, 
for  his  messmates,  one  and  all,  swore  that,  wake  at 
what  time  of  the  night  they  would,  Morgan  was  seen 
sitting  upright  in  his  hammock,  with  his  eyes  gla 
ring  wide  open.  When  his  turn  came  to  take  his 
watch  upon  deck,  his  conduct  was  equally  strange. 
He  would  stand  stock  still  in  one  place,  gazing  at 
the  stars,  or  the  ocean,  apparently  unconscious  of 
his  situation  ;  and  when  roused  by  his  companions, 
tumble  on  the  deck  in  a  swoon.  When  he  revived, 
he  would  fall  to  preaching  the  most  strange  and 
incomprehensible  rhapsodies  that  ever  were  heard. 
In  their  idle  hours  upon  the  forecastle,  Morgan 
told  such  stories  about  himself,  and  his  strange 
escapes  by  sea  and  land,  as  caused  the  sailors'  hair 
to  stand  on  end,  and  made  the  jolly  fellows  look 
upon  him  as  a  person  gifted  with  the  privilege  of 
living  for  ever.  He  often  indeed  hinted  that  he 


THE    GHOST.  169 

had  as  many  lives  as  a  cat,  and  several  times 
offered  to  let  himself  be  hanged  for  the  gratifica 
tion  of  his  messmates.  On  more  than  one  occa 
sion,  he  was  found  lying  on  his  back  in  his  ham 
mock,  apparently  without  life,  his  eyes  fixed  and 
glassy,  his  limbs  stiff  and  rigid,  his  lower  jaw  sunk 
down,  and  his  pulse  motionless,  at  least  so  his 
messmates  swore  when  they  went  to  call  the  doc 
tor  ;  though  when  the  latter  came  he  always  found 
Morgan  as  well  as  ever  he  was  in  his  life,  and  ap 
parently  unconscious  of  all  that  had  happened. 

As  they  proceeded  on  the  voyage,  which  proved 
for  the  most  part  a  succession  of  calms,  the  sailors, 
having  little  else  to  do,  either  imagined  or  invented 
new  wonders  about  Morgan.  At  one  time  a  little 
Welsh  foretopman  swore  that  as  he  was  going  to 
sit  down  to  dinner,  his  canteen  was  snatched  from 
under  him  by  an  invisible  hand,  and  he  fell  plump 
on  the  deck.  A  second  had  his  allowance  of  grog 
"  abducted"  in  a  mysterious  manner,  although  he 
was  ready  to  make  oath  he  never  had  his  eyes  off 
it  for  a  moment.  A  third  had  his  tobacco  box  ri 
fled,  though  it  had  never  been  out  of  his  pocket. 
A  fourth  had  a  crooked  sixpence,  with  a  hole  by 
which  it  was  suspended  from  his  neck  by  a  riband, 
taken  away  without  his  ever  being  the  wiser  for  it. 

These  things  at  length  reached  the  ears  of  Cap 
tain  R ,  who,  the  next  time  Morgan  got  into  one 

of  his  trances,  had  him  confined  for  four-and-twenty 
hours ;  and  otherwise  punished  him  in  various 
ways  on  the  recurrence  of  any  one  of  these  wonder- 
15  H 


170  THE    GHOST. 

fill  reports.  All  this  produced  no  effect  whatever 
either  on  Morgan  or  the  crew,  which  at  length  had 
its  wonder  stretched  to  the  utmost  bounds  by  a  sin 
gular  adventure  of  our  hero. 

One  day,  the  squadron  being  about  halfway 
across  the  Atlantic,  and  the  frigate  several  leagues 
ahead  with  a  fine  breeze,  there  was  an  alarm  of  the 
magazine  being  on  fire.  Morgan  was  just  coming 
on  deck  with  a  spoon  in  his  hand,  for  some  purpose 
or  other,  when  hearing  the  cry  of  "magazine  on 
fire,"  he  made  one  spring  overboard.  The  fire  was 
extinguished  by  the  daring  gallantry  of  an  officer, 
now  living,  and  standing  in  the  first  rank  of  our 
naval  heroes.  In  the  confusion  and  alarm,  it  was 
impossible  to  make  any  efforts  to  save  Morgan ; 
and  it  was  considered  a  matter  of  course  that  he 
had  perished  in  the  ocean.  Two  days  after,  one 
of  the  other  vessels  of  the  squadron  came  along 
side  the  frigate,  and  sent  a  boat  on  board  with  Billy 
Morgan.  Twelve  hours  from  the  time  of  his  leap 
ing  overboard,  he  had  been  found  swimming  away 
gallantly,  with  the  spoon  in  his  hand.  When  asked 
why  he  did  not  let  it  go,  he  replied  that  he  kept  it 
to  help  himself  to  salt  water  when  he  was  dry. 
This  adventure  fixed  in  the  minds  of  the  sailors  an 
obstinate  opinion,  that  Morgan  was  either  a  dead 
man  come  to  life  again,  or  one  that  was  not  very 
easy  to  be  killed. 

After  this,  Morgan  continued  his  mysterious 
pranks.  The  sailors  talked  and  wondered,  and 
Captain  R punished  him,  until  the  squadron 


THE    GHOST.  171 

was  within  two  or  three  days'  sail  of  Gibraltar,  ad 
mitting  the  wind  continued  fair  as  it  then  was. 
Morgan  had  been  punished  pretty  severely  that 
morning  for  stargazing  and  falling  into  a  swoon  on 
his  watch  the  night  before,  and  had  solemnly  as 
sured  his  messmates,  that  he  intended  to  jump  over 
board  and  drown  himself  the  first  opportunity.  He 
made  his  will,  dressed  himself  in  his  best,  and  set 
tled  all  his  affairs.  He  also  replenished  his  tobac 
co  box,  put  his  allowance  of  biscuit  in  his  pocket, 
and  filled  a  small  canteen  with  water,  which  he 
strung  about  his  neck ;  saying  that  perhaps  he 
might  take  it  into  his  head  to  live  a  day  or  two  in 
the  water,  before  he  finally  went  to  the  bottom. 

Between  twelve  and  one,  the  vessel  being  be 
calmed,  the  night  a  clear  starlight,  and  the  senti 
nels  pacing  their  rounds,  Morgan  was  distinctly 
seen  to  come  up  through  the  hatchway,  walk  for 
ward,  climb  the  bulwark,  and  let  himself  drop  into 
the  sea.  A  midshipman  and  two  seamen  testified 
to  the  facts;  and  Morgan  being  missing  the  next 
morning,  there  was  no  doubt  of  his  having  commit 
ted  suicide  by  drowning  himself.  This  affair  oc 
casioned  much  talk,  and  various  were  the  opinions 
of  the  ship's  crew  on  the  subject.  Some  swore  it 
was  one  Davy  Jones  who  had  been  playing  his 
pranks  ;  others  that  it  was  no  man,  but  a  ghost  or  a 
devil  that  had  got  among  them  ;  and  others  were  in 
daily  expectation  of  seeing  him  come  on  board 
again,  as  much  alive  as  ever  he  was. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  squadron  proceeded  but 

H2 


THE    GHOST. 


slowly,  being  detained  several  days  by  calms  and 
head  winds,  most  of  which  were  in  some  way  or 
other  laid  to  Billy  Morgan  by  the  gallant  tars,  who 
fear  nothing  but  Fridays  and  men  without  heads. 
His  fate,  however,  gradually  ceased  to  be  a  subject 
of  discussion,  and  the  wonder  was  quickly  passing 
away,  when  one  night,  about  a  week  after  his  jump 
ing  overboard,  the  figure  of  Morgan,  all  pale  and 
ghastly,  his  clothes  hanging  we.t  about  him  —  with 
eyes  more  sunken,  hair  more  upright,  and  face 
more  thin  and  cadaverous  than  ever,  was  seen  by 
one  of  his  messmates,  who  happened  to  be  lying 
awake,  to  emerge  slowly  from  the  forepart  of  the 
ship,  approach  one  of  the  tables  where  there  was  a 
can  of  water,  from  which  it  took  a  hearty  draught, 
and  disappear  in  the  direction  whence  it  came. 
The  sailor  told  the  story  next  morning,  but  as  yet 
very  few  believed  him. 

The  next  night  the  same  figure  appeared,  and 
was  seen  by  a  different  person  from  him  by  whom 
it  was  first  observed.  It  came  from  the  same  quar 
ter  again,  helped  itself  to  a  drink,  and  disappeared 
in  the  same  direction  it  had  done  before.  The  story 
of  Morgan's  ghost,  in  the  course  of  a  day  or  two, 
came  to  the  ears  of  Captain  R  --  ,  who  caused  a 
search  to  be  made  in  that  part  of  the  vessel  whence 
the  ghost  had  come  ;  under  the  impression  that  the 
jumping  overboard  of  Morgan  had  been  a  decep 
tion,  and  that  he  was  now  secreted  on  board  the 
ship.  The  search  ended,  however,  without  any  dis 
covery.  The  calms  and  head  winds  still  con- 


THE    GHOST.  173 

tinued,  and  not  a  sailor  on  board  but  ascribed  them 
to  Billy  Morgan's  mysterious  influence.  The  ghost 
made  its  appearance  again  the  following  night  af 
ter  the  search,  when  it  was  seen,  by  another  of 
Morgan's  messmates,  to  empty  his  tobacco  box,  and 
seize  some  of  the  fragments  of  supper,  which  had 
been  accidentally  left  on  a  table,  with  which  it  again 
vanished  in  the  manner  before  described.  The 
sailor  swore  that  when  the  ghost  made  free  with 
his  tobacco  box,  he  attempted  to  lay  hold  of  him,  but 
felt  nothing  in  his  hand,  except  something  exactly 
like  cold  water. 

Captain   R was    excessively  provoked  at 

these  stories,  and  caused  another  and  still  more 
thorough  search  to  be  made,  but  without  any  dis 
covery.  He  then  directed  a  young  midshipman  to 
keep  watch  between  decks.  That  night  the  ghost 
again  made  its  appearance,  and  the  courageous 
young  officer  sallied  out  upon  it ;  but  the  figure 
darted  away  with  inconceivable  velocity,  and  dis 
appeared.  The  midshipman,  as  directed,  immedi 
ately  informed  Captain  R ,  who  instituted  an 

immediate  search,  but  with  as  little  success  as  be 
fore.  By  this  time  there  was  not  a  sailor  on  board 
that  was  not  afraid  of  his  shadow,  and  even  the  of 
ficers  began  to  be  infected  with  a  superstitious 
dread.  At  length  the  squadron  arrived  at  Gibral 
tar,  and  came  to  in  the  bay  of  Algesiras,  where  the 
ships  remained  some  days  waiting  the  arrival  of 
those  they  had  come  to  relieve.  About  the  usual 
hour  that  night,  the  ghost  of  Billy  Morgan  again 
15* 


174  THE    GHOST. 

appeared  to  one  of  his  messmates,  offered  him  its 
hand,  and  saying  "  Good-by,  Tom,"  disappeared 
as  usual. 

It  was  a  fortnight  or  more  before  the  relief  squad 
ron  sailed  up  the  Mediterranean,  during  which  time 
the  crews  of  the  ships  were  permitted  to  take  their 
turn  to  go  on  shore.  On  one  of  these  occasions, 
a  messmate  of  Billy  Morgan,  named  Tom  Brown, 
was  passing  through  a  tolerably  dark  lane  in  the 
suburbs  of  Algesiras,  when  he  heard  a  well-known 
voice  call  out,  "  Tom,  Tom,  d — n  your  eyes, 
don't  you  know  your  old  messmate  ?"  Tom  knew 
the  voice,  and  looking  round,  recognised  his  old 
messmate  Morgan's  ghost.  But  he  had  no  incli 
nation  to  renew  the  acquaintance ;  he  took  to  his 
heels,  and  without  looking  behind  him  to  see  if  the 
ghost  followed,  ran  to  the  boat  where  his  compan 
ions  were  waiting,  and  told  the  story  as  soon  as  he 
could  find  breath  for  the  purpose.  This  reached 

the  ear  of  Captain  R ,  who,  being  almost  sure 

of  the  existence  of  Morgan,  applied  to  the  governor 
of  the  town,  who  caused  search  to  be  made  every 
where  without  effect.  No  one  had  ever  seen  such 
a  person.  That  very  night  the  ghost  made  its  ap 
pearance  on  board  the  frigate,  and  passed  its  cold 
wet  hand  over  the  face  of  Tom  Brown,  to  whom 
Morgan  had  left  his  watch  and  chest  of  clothes. 
The  poor  fellow  bawled  out  lustily;  but  before 
any  pursuit  could  be  made,  the  ghost  had  disap 
peared  in  the  forward  part  of  the  ship  as  usual. 
After  this  Billy  again  appeared  two  or  three  times 


THE    GHOST.  175 

alternately  to  some  one  of  his  old  messmates  ; 
sometimes  in  the  town,  at  others  on  board  the 
frigate,  but  always  in  the  dead  of  night.  He 
seemed  desirous  to  say  something  particular,  but 
could  never  succeed  in  getting  any  of  the  sail 
ors  to  listen  quietly  to  the  communication.  The 
last  time  he  made  his  appearance  at  Algesiras,  on 
board  the  frigate,  he  was  heard  by  one  of  the  sail 
ors  to  utter,  in  a  low  hollow  whisper,  "  You  shall 
see  me  at  Malta ;"  after  which  he  vanished  as  be 
fore. 

Captain  R was  excessively  perplexed  at 

these  strange  and  unaccountable  visitations,  and 
instituted  every  possible  inquiry  into  the  circum 
stances  in  the  hope  of  finding  some  clew  to  explain 
the  mystery.  He  again  caused  the  ship  to  be  ex 
amined  with  a  view  to  the  discovery  either  of  the 
place  where  Morgan  secreted  himself,  or  the  means 
by  which  he  escaped  from  the  vessel.  He  ques 
tioned  every  man  on  board,  and  threatened  the  se 
verest  punishment,  should  he  ever  discover  that 
they  deceived  him  in  their  story,  or  were  accom 
plices  in  the  escape  of  Morgan.  He  even  removed 
everything  in  the  forward  part  of  the  ship,  and  ren 
dered  it  impossible  for  any  human  being  to  be 
there  without  being  detected.  The  whole  resulted 
in  leaving  the  affair  involved  in  complete  mystery, 
and  the  squadron  proceeded  up  the  Mediterranean, 
to  cruise  along  the  African  coast,  and  rendezvous 
at  Malta. 

It  was  some  weeks  before  the  frigate  came  to 


176  THE    GHOST. 

the  latter  place,  and  in  the  mean  time,  as  nothing 
had  been  seen  of  the  ghost,  it  was  concluded  that 
the  shade  of  Billy  Morgan  was  appeased,  or  rather 
the  whole  affair  had  been  gradually  forgotten.  Two 
nights  after  her  arrival,  a  party  of  sailors,  being 
ashore  at  La  Vallette,  accidentally  entered  a  small 
tavern  in  a  remote  part  of  the  suburbs,  where  they 
commenced  a  frolic,  after  the  manner  of  those  am 
phibious  bipeds.  Among  them  was  the  heir  of 
Billy  Morgan,  who  about  three  or  four  in  the  morn 
ing  went  to  bed,  not  quite  as  clear  headed  as  he 
might  have  been.  He  could  not  tell  how  long  he 
had  been  asleep,  when  he  was  awakened  by  a 
voice  whispering  in  his  ear,  "Tom,  Tom,  wake 
up  !"  On  opening  his  eyes,  he  beheld,  by  the  pale 
light  of  the  morning,  the  ghastly  figure  of  Billy 
Morgan  leaning  over  his  bed  arid  glaring  at  him 
with  eyes  like  saucers.  Tom  cried,  "  Murder  ! 
ghost !  Billy  Morgan  !"  as  loud  as  he  could  bawl, 
until  he  roused  the  landlord,  who  came  to  know 
what  was  the  matter.  Tom  related  the  whole  affair, 
and  inquired  if  he  had  seen  anything  of  the  figure 
he  described.  Mine  host  utterly  denied  having 
seen  or  ever  heard  of  such  a  figure  as  Billy  Morgan, 
and  so  did  all  his  family.  The  report  was  again 
alive  on  board  the  frigate,  that  Billy  Morgan's  ghost 
had  taken  the  field  once  more.  "  Heaven  and 

earth  !"  cried  Captain  R ,  "  is  Billy  Morgan's 

ghost  come  again  ?     Shall  I  never  get  rid  of  this 
infernal  spectre,  or  whatever  else  it  may  be  ?" 
Captain  R immediately  ordered  his  barge, 


THE    GHOST.  177 

waited  on  the  governor,  explained  the  situation  of 
his  crew,  and  begged  his  assistance  in  apprehend 
ing  the  ghost  of  Billy  Morgan,  or  Billy  himself,  as 
the  case  might  be.  That  night  the  governor  caused 
the  strictest  search  to  be  made  in  every  hole  and 
corner  of  the  little  town  of  La  Vallette;  but  in 
vain.  No  one  had  seen  that  remarkable  being, 
corporeal  or  spiritual ;  and  the  landlord  of  the  house 
where  the  spectre  appeared,  together  with  all  his 
family,  utterly  denied  any  knowledge  of  such  a 
person  or  thing.  It  is  little  to  be  wondered  at,  that 
the  search  proved  ineffectual,  for  that  very  night 
Billy  took  a  fancy  to  appear  on  board  the  frigate, 
where  he  again  accosted  his  old  friend  Tom,  to 
whom  he  had  bequeathed  all  his  goods  and  chattels. 
But  Tom  had  no  mind  for  a  confidential  communi 
cation  with  the  ghost,  and  roared  out  so  lustily,  as 
usual,  that  it  glided  away  and  disappeared  as  be 
fore,  without  being  intercepted  in  the  confusion 
which  followed. 

Captain  R- was  in  despair ;  never  was  man 

so  persecuted  by  a  ghost  in  this  world  before.  The 
ship's  crew  were  in  a  state  of  terror  and  dismay, 
insomuch  that  had  an  Algerine  come  across  them 
they  might  peradventure  have  surrendered  at  dis 
cretion.  They  signed  a  round  robin,  drawn  up  by 
one  of  Billy  Morgan's  old  messmates,  representing 

to  Captain  R the  propriety  of  running  the  ship 

ashore,  and  abandoning  her  entirely  to  the  ghost, 

which  now  appeared  almost  every  night,  sometimes 

between  decks,  at  others  on  the  end  of  the  bowsprit, 

H3 


178  THE    GHOST. 

and  at  others  cutting  capers  on  the  yards  and  top 
gallant  mast.  The  story  spread  into  the  town  of 
La  Vallette,  and  nothing  was  talked  of  but  the  ghost 
of  Billy  Morgan,  which  now  began  to  appear  occa 
sionally  to  the  sentinels  of  the  fort,  one  of  whom 
had  the  courage  to  fire  at  it,  by  which  he  alarmed 
the  whole  island  and  made  matters  ten  times  worse 
than  ever. 

From  Malta  the  squadron,  after  making  a  cruise 
of  a  few  weeks,  proceeded  to  Syracuse,  with  the 
intention  of  remaining  some  time.  They  were 
obliged  to  perform  a  long  quarantine ;  the  ships 
were  strictly  examined  by  the  health  officers,  and 
fumigated  with  brimstone,  to  the  great  satisfaction 
of  the  crew  of  the  frigate,  who  were  in  great  hopes 
this  would  drive  away  Billy  Morgan's  ghost.  These 
hopes  were  strengthened  by  their  seeing  no  more 
of  that  troublesome  visiter  during  the  whole  time 
the  quarantine  continued.  The  very  next  night 
after  the  expiration  of  the  quarantine,  Billy  again 
visited  his  old  messmate  and  heir  Tom  Brown,  lank, 
lean,  and  dripping  wet,  as  usual,  and  after  giving 
him  a  rousing  shake,  whispered,  "  Hush,  Tom ;  I 
want  to  speak  to  you  about  rny  watch  and  chest  of 
clothes."  But  Tom  had  no  inclination  to  converse 
with  his  old  friend,  and  cried  out  "  Murder"  with 
all  his  might ;  when  the  ghost  vanished  as  before, 
muttering,  as  Tom  swore,  "  You  bloody  infernal 
lubber." 

The  reappearance  of  the  ghost  occasioned  greater 
consternation  than  ever  among  the  crew  of  the  good 


THE    GHOST.  179 

ship,  and  it  required  all  the  influence  of  severe  pun 
ishments  to  keep  them  from  deserting  on  every 
occasion.  Poor  Tom  Brown,  to  whom  the  devoirs 
of  the  spectre  seemed  most  especially  directed,  left 
off  swearing  and  chewing  tobacco,  and  dwindled  to 
a  perfect  shadow.  He  became  very  serious,  and 
spent  almost  all  his  leisure  time  in  reading  chapters 

in  the  Bible   or  singing  psalms.     Captain  R — 

now  ordered  a  constant  watch  all  night  between 
decks,  in  hopes  of  detecting  the  intruder ;  but  all 
in  vain,  although  there  was  hardly  a  night  passed 
without  Tom's  waking  and  crying  out  that  the  ghost 
had  just  paid  him  a  visit.  It  was,  however,  thought 
very  singular,  and  to  afford  additional  proof  of  its 
being  a  ghost,  that  on  all  these  occasions,  except 
two,  it  was  invisible  to  everybody  but  Tom  Brown. 
In  addition  to  the  vexation  arising  from  this  per 
severing  and  diabolical  persecution  of  Billy's  ghost, 
various  other  strange  and  unaccountable  things 
happened  almost  every  day  on  board  the  frigate. 
Tobacco  boxes  were  emptied  in  the  most  mysteri 
ous  manner,  and  in  the  dead  of  the  night;  sailors 
would  sometimes  be  missing  a  whole  day,  and  re 
turn  again  without  being  able  to  give  any  account 
of  themselves ;  and  not  a  few  of  them  were  over 
taken  with  liquor,  without  their  being  ever  the  wiser 
for  it,  for  they  all  swore  they  had  not  drunk  a  drop 
beyond  their  allowance.  Sometimes,  on  going 
ashore  on  leave  for  a  limited  time,  the  sailors  would 
be  decoyed,  as  they  solemnly  assured  the  captain, 
by  some  unaccountable  influence  into  strange,  out 


180  THE    GHOST. 

of  the  way  places,  where  they  could  not  find  their 
road  back,  and  where  they  were  found  by  their 
officers  in  a  state  of  mysterious  stupefaction,  though 
not  one  had  tasted  a  drop  of  liquor.  On  these 
occasions,  they  always  saw  the  ghost  of  Billy  Mor 
gan,  either  flying  through  the  air,  or  dancing  on  the 
tops  of  the  steeples,  with  a  fiery  tail  like  a  comet. 
Wonder  grew  upon  wonder  every  day,  until  the 
wonder  transcended  the  bounds  of  human  credu 
lity. 

At  length,  Tom  Brown,  the  night  after  receiving 
a  visit  from  Billy  Morgan's  ghost,  disappeared,  and 
was  never  heard  of  afterwards.  As  the  chest  of 
clothes  inherited  from  his  deceased  messmate  was 
found  entirely  empty,  it  might  have  been  surmised 
that  Tom  had  deserted,  had  not  a  sailor,  who  was 
on  the  watch,  solemnly  declared  that  he  saw  the 
ghost  of  Billy  Morgan  jump  overboard  with  him  in 
a  flame  of  fire,  and  that  he  hissed  like  a  red-hot 
ploughshare  in  the  water.  After  this  bold  feat,  the 
spectre  appeared  no  more.  The  squadron  remained 
some  time  at  Syracuse,  and  various  adventures  be 
fell  the  officers  and  crews,  which  those  remaining 
alive  tell  of  to  this  day.  How  Macdonough,  then  a 
madcap  midshipman,  "  licked"  the  high  constable 
of  the  town  ;  how  Burroughs  quizzed  the  governor  ; 
what  rows  they  kicked  up  at  masquerades  ;  what 
a  dust  they  raised  among  the  antiquities ;  and 
what  wonders  they  whispered  in  the  ear  of  Diony- 
sius.  From  thence,  they  again  sailed  on  a  cruise, 
and  after  teaching  the  Bey  of  Tripoli  a  new  way 


THE    GHOST.  181 

of  paying  tribute,  and  laying  the  foundation  of  that 
structure  of  imperishable  glory  which  shall  one  day 
reach  the  highest  heaven,  returned  home,  after  an 
absence  of  between  two  and  three  years.  The 
crew  of  the  frigate  were  paid  off  and  discharged, 
and  it  is  on  record,  as  a  wonder,  that  their  three 
years'  pay  lasted  some  of  them  nearly  three  days. 
But  though  we  believe  in  the  ghost  of  Billy  Mor 
gan,  we  can  scarcely  credit  this  incredible  wonder. 
Certain  it  is,  that  not  a  man  of  them  ever  doubted 
for  a  moment  the  reality  of  the  spectre,  or  would 
have  hesitated  to  make  oath  of  having  seen  it  more 

than  once.     Even  Captain  R spoke  of  it  on 

his  return,  as  one  of  those  strange,  inscrutable 
things,  which  baffle  the  efforts  of  human  ingenuity, 
and  seem  to  justify  the  most  extraordinary  relations 
of  past  and  present  times.  His  understanding  re 
volted  at  the  absurdity  of  a  great  part  of  the  won 
ders  ascribed  to  Billy  Morgan's  ghost ;  but  some 
of  the  facts  were  so  well  attested,  that  a  painful 
"doubt  would  often  pass  over  his  mind,  and  dispose 
it  to  the  reception  of  superstitious  impressions. 

He  remained  in  this  state  of  mixed  skepticism 
and  credulity,  when,  some  years  after  his  return 
from  the  Mediterranean,  being  on  a  journey  to  the 
westward,  he  had  occasion  to  halt  at  a  log  house,  on 
the  borders  of  the  Tennessee,  for  refreshment.  A 
man  came  forth  to  receive  him,  whom  he  at  once 
recognised  as  his  old  acquaintance,  Billy  Morgan. 
"  Heavens  !"  thought  Captain  R ,  "  here's  Mon 
sieur  Tonson  come  again  !"  Billy,  who  had  also 
16 


182  THE    GHOST. 

found  out  who  his  guest  was,  when  too  late  to  re 
treat,  looked  rather  sheepish,  and  invited  him  in 
with  little  of  the  frank  hospitality  characteristic  of  a 

genuine  backwoodsman.  Captain  R followed 

him  into  the  house,  where  he  found  a  comely  good- 
natured  dame,  and  two  or  three  yellow-haired  boys 
and  girls,  all  in  a  fluster  at  the  stranger.  The 
house  had  an  air  of  comfort,  and  the  mistress,  by 
her  stirring  activity,  accompanied  with  smiling  looks 
withal,  seemed  pleased  at  the  rare  incident  of  a 
stranger's  entering  their  door. 

Bill  Morgan  was  at  first  rather  shy  and  awk 
ward.  But  finding  Captain  R treated  him 

with  good-humoured  frankness,  he,  in  the  course  of 
the  evening,  when  the  children  were  gone  to  bed, 
and  the  wife  busy  in  milking  the  cows,  took  occa 
sion  to  accost  his  old  commander. 

"  Captain,  I  hope  you  don't  mean  to  shoot  me 
for  a  deserter  ?" 

"By  no  means,"  said  the  captain,  smiling;  "there 
would  be  little  use  in  shooting  a  ghost,  or  a  man 
with  as  many  lives  as  a  cat." 

Billy  Morgan  smiled  rather  a  melancholy  smile. 
"  Ah !  captain,  you  have  not  forgot  the  ghost,  I  see. 
But  it  is  a  long  time  to  remember  an  old  score,  and 
I  hope  you'll  forgive  me." 

"  On  one  condition  I  will,"  replied  Captain 
R ;  "  that  you  tell  me  honestly  how  you  man 
aged  to  make  all  my  sailors  believe  they  saw  you, 
night  after  night,  on  board  the  ship  as  well  as  on 
shore." 


THE    GHOST.  183 

"  They  did  see  me,"  replied  Billy,  in  his  usual 
sepulchral  voice. 

The  captain  began  to  be  in  some  doubt  whether 
he  was  talking  to  Billy  Morgan  or  his  ghost. 

"  You  don't  pretend  to  say  you  were  really  on 
board  my  vessel  all  the  time  ?" 

"  No,  not  all  the  time,  only  at  such  times  as  the 
sailors  saw  me — except  previous  to  our  arrival  at 
Gibraltar." 

"  Then  their  seeing  you  jump  overboard  was  all 
a  deception." 

"  By  no  means,  sir ;  I  did  jump  overboard — but 
then  I  climbed  back  again,  directly  after." 

"  The  dense  you  did — explain." 

"  I  will,  sir,  as  well  as  I  am  able.  I  was  many 
years  among  the  Sandwich  Islanders,  where  the  ves 
sel  in  which  I  was  a  cabin  boy  was  wrecked,  a 
long  time  ago,  and  I  can  pass  whole  hours,  I  be 
lieve  days,  in  the  water,  without  being  fatigued,  ex 
cept  for  want  of  sleep.  I  have  also  got  some  of 
their  other  habits,  such  as  a  great  dislike  to  hard 
work,  and  a  liking  for  going  where  I  will,  and  do 
ing  just  what  I  please.  The  discipline  of  a  man- 
of-war  did  not  suit  me  at  all,  and  I  grew  tired  after 
a  few  days.  To  pass  the  time,  and  to  make  fun 
for  myself  with  the  sailors,  I  told  them  stories  of 
my  adventures,  and  pretended  that  I  could  live  in 
the  water,  and  had  as  many  lives  as  a  cat.  Be 
sides  this,  as  you  know,  I  played  them  many  other 
pranks,  partly  for  amusement,  and  partly  from  a 
kind  of  pride  I  felt  in  making  them  believe  I  was 


184  THE    GHOST. 

half  a  wizard.  The  punishment  you  gave  me, 
though  I  own  I  deserved  it,  put  me  out  of  all  pa 
tience,  and  I  made  up  my  mind  to  desert  the  very 
first  opportunity.  I  had  an  old  shipmate  with  me, 
whom  I  could  trust,  and  we  planned  the  whole 
thing  together.  I  knew  if  I  deserted  at  Gibraltar, 
or  any  of  the  ports  of  the  Mediterranean,  I  should 
almost  certainly  be  caught,  and  shot  as  an  exam 
ple  ;  and  for  this  reason  we  settled  that  I  should 
jump  overboard,  return  again,  and  hide  myself  in  a 
coil  of  cable  which  was  stowed  away  between 
decks,  close  to  the  bows,  where  it  was  dark  even  in 
the  daytime.  My  messmate  procured  a  piece  of 
old  canvass,  with  which  I  might  cover  myself  if 
necessary.  To  make  my  jumping  overboard  have 
a  greater  effect  on  the  crew,  and  to  provide  against 
accidents  until  the  ship  arrived  at  Gibraltar,  I  took 
care  to  fill  my  tobacco  box  with  tobacco,  my  pock 
ets  with  biscuits,  and  to  sling  a  canteen  of  water 
round  my  neck,  as  I  told  them  perhaps  I  might 
take  it  into  my  head  not  to  go  to  the  bottom  for  two 
or  three  days.  I  got  Tom  Brown  to  write  my  will, 
intending  to  leave  my  watch  and  chest  to  my  mess 
mate,  who  was  to  return  them  to  me  at  Gibraltar, 
the  first  chance  he  could  get.  But  Tom  played  us 
a  trick,  and  put  his  own  name  in  place  of  my 
friend's.  Neither  he  nor  I  were  any  great  schol 
ars,  and  the  trick  was  not  found  out  till  afterwards, 
when  my  friend  was  afraid  of  discovery,  if  he 
made  any  rout  about  the  matter." 

"  Who  was  your  friend  ?"  asked  Captain  R . 


THE    GHOST.  185 

"  He  is  still  alive,  and  in  service.  I  had  rather 
not  mention  his  name." 

"  Very  well,"  replied  Captain  R ,  "  go  on." 

"  That  night  I  jumped  overboard." 

"  How  did  you  get  back  into  the  ship  ?"  asked 
the  captain,  hastily. 

"Why,  sir,  the  forward  porthole,  on  the  star 
board  side,  was  left  open,  with  a  bit  of  rope  fastened 
to  the  gun,  and  hanging  down  so  that  I  could  catch 
it." 

The  captain  struck  his  forehead  with  the  palm 
of  his  hand,  and  said  to  himself, 

"  What  a  set  of  blockheads  we  were  !" 

"  Not  so  great  as  might  have  been  expected,"  said 
honest  Billy  Morgan,  intending  to  compliment  the 
captain ;  but  it  sounded  directly  the  contrary. 

"  As  soon  as  I  had  jumped  overboard  I  swam  to 
the  rope,  which  I  held  fast,  waiting  the  signal  from 
my  friend  to  climb  up  and  hide  myself  in  the  coil  of 
cable.  In  the  bustle  which  followed  it  was  easy 
enough  to  do  this,  and  nobody  saw  me  but  my 
friend.  Here  I  remained  in  my  wet  clothes,  rather 
uncomfortably,  as  you  may  suppose,  until  my  pro 
vision  and  water  were  expended,  and  my  tobacco 
box  empty.  I  calculated  they  would  last  till  we 
arrived  at  Gibraltar,  when  nothing  would  have  been 
easier  for  me  than  to  jump  out  of  the  porthole  and 
swim  ashore.  But  the  plaguy  head  winds  and 
calms,  which  1  dare  say  you  remember,  delayed 
the  squadron  several  days  longer  than  I  expected, 
and  left  me  without  supply.  I  could  have  gone 
16* 


186  THE    GHOST. 

without  biscuit  and  water,  but  it  was  impossible  to 
live  without  tobacco.  My  friend  had  promised  to 
come  near  enough  to  hear  signals  of  distress  some 
times,  but,  as  he  told  me  afterwards,  he  was  con 
fined  several  days  for  picking  a  quarrel  with  Tom 
Brown,  whom  he  longed  to  flog  for  forging  the 
will. 

"I  remained  in  this  state  until  I  was  nearly 
starved,  when,  not  being  able  to  stand  it  any 
longer,  I  one  night,  when  everybody  between 
decks  seemed  fast  asleep,  crept  out  from  rny  hi 
ding  place,  where  I  was  coiled  up  in  the  shape  of  a 
cable,  and  finding  a  pitcher  of  water,  took  a  hearty 
drink  out  of  it.  This  was  as  far  as  I  dared  go  at 
that  time,  so  I  went  back  again  as  quietly  as  possi 
ble.  But  I  was  too  hungry  to  remain  quiet,  though 
among  the  Sandwich  Islanders  I  had  been  used  to 
go  without  eating  for  days  at  a  time.  The  next 
night  I  crept  out  again,  and  was  lucky  enough  to 
get  a  pretty  good  supply  of  provisions,  which  hap 
pened  to  be  left  by  some  accident  in  the  way. 
Two  or  three  times  I  heard  search  making  for  me, 
and  was  very  much  frightened  lest  I  should  be  found 
out  in  my  hole." 

"  How  was  it  possible  for  the  blockheads  to  miss 
you  ?"  asked  Captain  R . 

"Why,  sir,  they  did  come  to  the  cable  tier 
where  I  was,  but  I  believe  they  were  too  much 
frightened  to  look  into  it,  or  could  not  see  me  in  the 
dark  hole.  They  did  not  lift  the  canvass  that 
covered  me  either  of  the  times  they  came.  The 


THE    GHOST.  187 

night  I  found  the  officer  on  the  watch,  I  gave  my 
self  up  for  gone ;  but  as  luck  would  have  it,  my 
friend  was  now  out  of  limbo,  and  always  took  care 
to  examine  the  coil  of  cable  so  carefully,  that  no 
body  thought  of  looking  into  it  after  him.  When 
we  arrived  at  the  bay  of  Algesiras,  I  took  an  op 
portunity  to  frighten  Tom  Brown  a  little,  by  visit 
ing  him  in  the  night  and  bidding  him  good-by, 
after  which  I  slipped  quietly  out  of  the  porthole, 
and  swam  ashore,  while  my  friend  pulled  up  the 
rope  arid  shut  the  port  after  me  as  usual." 

"  But  how  did  you  manage  to  escape  from  the 
search  made  by  the  police  at  Algesiras  ?" 

"  Oh,  sir  !  I  was  on  board  the  frigate  all  the  time 
in  my  old  hiding  place." 

"  And  when  the  ship  was  searched  directly 
after?" 

"  I  was  ashore  at  that  time." 

"  And  how  did  you  manage  at  Malta  ?" 

"  The  landlord  was  my  sworn  brother,  and 
wouldn't  have  blabbed  for  a  thousand  pounds." 

"And  the  capers  on  the  yardarm  and  topgal 
lant,  the  visits  paid  to  Tom  Brown  at  Syracuse, 
and  the  wonderful  stories  told  by  the  sailors  of 
being  robbed  of  their  tobacco,  getting  tipsy  upon 
nothing,  and  being  led  astray  by  nobody  ?  What 
do  you  say  to  all  this,  Mr.  Ghost  ?"  said  the  cap 
tain,  smiling. 

"  I  never  paid  but  two  visits  to  the  ship,  so  far 
as  I  remember,  sir,  after  she  left  Malta.  One  was 
the  night  I  wanted  to  talk  with  Tom  Brown,  the 


188  THE    GHOST. 

other  when  he  disappeared  the  night  afterwards. 
The  rest  of  the  stories  were  all  owing  to  the  jokes  of 
some  of  the  sailors,  and  the  fears  of  the  others." 

"  But  you  are  sure  you  did  not  jump  into  the  sea 
with  Tom  Brown,  in  a  flame  of  fire  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir,  as  I  am  an  honest  man.  Tom  got 
away  without  any  help  of  mine,  and  without  my 
ever  knowing  how,  until  a  long  time  afterwards, 
when  I  accidentally  met  him  at  Liverpool." 

"Well?" 

"  He  was  not  to  be  convinced  I  was  living,  but 
ran  away  as  hard  as  he  could,  and  to  this  day  be 
lieves  in  ghosts  as  much  as  he  does  in  his  being 
alive  himself." 

"  So  far  all  is  clear  enough,"  said  Captain 

R ;  "  but  what  could  possibly  induce  you  to 

put  yourself  in  the  way  of  being  caught  after  es 
caping,  by  visiting  the  ship  and  letting  yourself  be 
seen  ?" 

"  I  wanted  to  see  Tom  Brown,  sir." 

"Why  so?" 

"  I  wanted  to  get  back  my  watch  and  clothes 
from  him." 

"  Oh  !  I  see  it  now.  But  had  you  no  other  ob 
ject?" 

"  Why,  I'll  tell  you,  sir ;  besides  that,  I  had  a 
sort  of  foolish  pride,  all  my  life,  in  frightening  peo 
ple,  .and  making  them  wonder  at  me,  by  telling 
tough  stories,  or  doing  strange  things.  I  haven't 
got  over  it  to  this  day,  and  have  been  well  beaten 
two  or  three  times,  besides  being  put  in  jail,  for 


THE    GHOST.  189 

playing  the  ghost  hereabout,  with  the  country 
people,  at  court  time.  I  confess  too,  sir,  that  I 
have  once  or  twice  frightened  my  wife  almost  into 
fits,  by  way  of  a  frolic ;  and  for  all  the  trouble  it 
has  brought  upon  me,  I  believe  in  my  soul  I  shall 
play  the  ghost  till  I  give  up  the  ghost  at  last. 
Besides  this,  the  truth  is,  sir,  I  had  a  little  spite  at 
you  for  having  put  me  in  the  bilboes  for  some  of 
these  pranks,  as  I  deserved,  and  had  no  objection 
to  pay  you  off,  by  breeding  trouble  in  the  ship." 

"  Truly,  you  succeeded  wonderfully  ;  but  what 
became  of  you  afterwards  ?" 

"  Why,  sir,  after  Tom  Brown  deserted,  and,  to 
quiet  his  conscience,  left  my  watch  and  clothes  to 
my  friend,  I  had  no  motive  for  playing  the  ghost 
any  more.  I  shipped  in  an  American  merchant 
man  for  Smyrna — from  thence  I  went  to  Gibraltar 
—and  after  voyaging  a  year  or  two,  and  saving  a 
few  hundred  dollars,  came  to  Boston  at  last.  I  did 
not  dare  to  stay  along  shore,  for  fear  of  being 
known  by  some  of  the  officers  of  the  squadron,  so 
I  took  my  money  and  my  bundle  and  went  into 
the  back  country.  I  am  a  little  of  everything,  a 
jack  of  all  trades,  and  turned  farmer,  as  sea  captains 
often  do  when  they  are  tired  of  ploughing  the 
ocean.  I  get  on  pretty  well  now,  and  hope  you 
won't  have  me  shot  by  a  court  martial." 

"No,"  replied  Captain  R ,  "  I  am  out  of  the 

navy  now.  I  have  turned  farmer  too,  and  you  are 
quite  safe." 

"  I  hope  you  prosper  well,  sir  ?" 


190  THE    GHOST. 

"  Not  quite  as  well  as  you,  Billy — I  have  come 
into  the  backwoods  to  see  if  I  can  do  better." 

"  Only  serve  under  me,"  said  Billy,  "  and  I  will 
repay  all  your  good  offices." 

"  What,  the  floggings,  et  cetera  ?n 

"  By  God's  help,  sir,  I  may,"  said  Billy.  "  Try 
me,  sir." 

"  No — I  am  going  on  a  little  farther." 

"  You  may  go  farther,  and  fare  worse,  sir." 

"  Perhaps  so — but  I  believe  it  is  bedtime,  and 
so  good-night,  Mr.  Ghost." 

Captain  R retired  very  quietly  to  his  room, 

went  to  bed,  and  slept  like  a  top,  till  the  broad  sun 
shone  over  the  summits  of  the  trees  into  his  face, 
as  he  lay  under  the  window.  He  breakfasted  sump 
tuously,  and  set  out  gallantly  for  the  prairies  of  St. 
Louis. 

"  Good-by,  captain,"  said  Billy,  leering,  and 
lengthening  his  face  to  a  supernatural  degree.  "  I 
hope  you  won't  meet  any  ghosts  on  your  way." 

"  Good-by,  Billy,"  replied  Captain  R ,  a  lit 
tle  nettled  at  this  joke.  "  I  hope  you  will  not  get 
into  the  state  prison  for  playing  the  ghost." 

"  I'll  take  care  of  that,  sir ;  I've  been  in  the  state 
prison  already,  and  you  won't  catch  me  there  again, 
I  warrant  you." 

"  What  do  you  mean,  Billy  ?" 

"  I  mean,  that  there  is  little  or  no  odds  between 
a  state  ship  and  a  state  prison,"  said  Billy,  with  a 
face  longer  than  ever,  and  a  most  expressive  shrug. 

Captain  R proceeded  on  his  way,  reflecting 


THE    GHOST.  191 

on  the  singular  story  of  Billy  Morgan,  whose  pranks 
on  board  the  frigate  had  convinced  some  hundreds 
of  men  of  the  existence  of  ghosts,  and  thrown  the 
gloom  of  superstitious  horror  over  the  remainder  of 
their  existence.  "  Not  a  sailor,"  thought  he,  "  out 
of  more  than  five  hundred,  with  the  exception  of  a 
single  one,  but  will  go  to  his  grave  in  the  full  be 
lief  of  the  appearance  of  Billy  Morgan's  ghost. 
What  an  unlucky  rencounter  this  of  mine ;  it  has 
spoiled  one  of  the  best-authenticated  ghost  stories 
of  the  age." 


THE 


NYMPH  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 


IN  a  certain  corner  of  the  Bay  State  there  once 
stood,  and  we  hope  will  continue  to  flourish  long 
and  happily,  a  snug  town,  now  promoted  to  be  a 
city,  the  name  of  which  is  not  material  to  our  pur 
pose.  Here  in  a  great  shingle  palace,  which  would 
have  been  a  very  comfortable  edifice  had  it  only 
been  finished,  lived  a  reputable  widow,  well  to  do 
in  the  world,  and  the  happy  mother  of  a  promising 
lad,  a  wonderful  clever  boy,  as  might  be  expected. 
In  fact,  Shearjashub  (that  was  his  name)  was  no 
bad  specimen  of  the  country  lad.  He  was  hardy, 
abstemious,  independent,  and  cute  withal ;  and  be 
fore  he  was  a  man  grown,  made  a  great  bargain 
once  out  of  a  travelling  merchant,  a  Scotchman,  who 
chanced  that  way.  Besides  this,  he  was  a  me 
chanical  genius  ;  and,  though  far  from  being  lazy, 
delighted  in  the  invention  of  labour-saving  machines, 
some  of  which  were  odd  enough.  He  peeled  all 
his  mother's  pumpkins  by  water,  and  spun  her  flax 
with  a  windmill.  Nay,  it  was  reported  of  him, 
that  he  once  invented  a  machine  for  digging  graves 
upon  speculation,  by  which  he  calculated  he  should 


THE    NYMPH    OF    THE    MOUNTAIN.  193 

certainly  have  made  his  fortune,  had  not  the  people 
of  the  village  all  with  one  accord  taken  it  into  their 
heads  to  live  for  ever.  The  name  of  the  family 
was  Yankee,  they  having  been  the  first  that  had 
intercourse  with  the  Indians,  who  called  them 
Yankee,  because  they  could  not  say  English. 

The  Widow  Yankee  was  a  right  pious,  meeting- 
going  woman,  who  held  it  to  be  a  great  want  of 
faith  not  to  believe  in  everything ;  especially  every 
thing  out  of  the  way  and  impossible.  She  was 
a  great  amateur  of  demonology  and  witchcraft. 
Moreover,  she  was  gifted  with  a  reasonable  share 
of  curiosity,  though  it  is  recorded  that  once  she 
came  very  near  missing  to  get  at  the  bottom  of  a 
secret.  The  story  ran  as  follows  : — 

One  day,  as  she  was  sitting  at  her  window, 
which  had  a  happy  aspect  for  overlooking  the 
affairs  of  the  village,  she  saw  a  mysterious-looking 
man,  with  a  stick  in  his  hand  and  a  pipe  in  his 
mouth,  walking  exactly  three  feet  behind  a  white 
cow.  The  same  thing  happened  precisely  at  the 
same  hour  in  the  same  manner  the  next  day,  and 
so  continued  for  some  time.  The  first  week  the 
widow  began  to  think  it  rather  odd  ;  the  second  she 
began  to  think  it  quite  strange  ;  the  third  it  became 
altogether  mysterious ;  and  the  fourth  the  poor 
woman  took  to  her  bed,  of  the  disease  of  the  man 
and  the  cow. 

Doctor  Calomel  undertook  the  cure  in  a  new  and 
original   manner,  to  wit,  without  the  use  of  medi 
cine.     He  wrought  upon  the  mysterious  cowdriver 
17  i 


194      THE  NYMPH  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

to  come  to  the  widow's  house,  and  tell  her  the 
whole  secret  of  the  business.  When  he  came  into 
the  room  the  sick  woman  raised  herself  up,  and  in 
a  faint  voice  addressed  him  as  follows  : — 

"  Mysterious  man !  I  conjure  thee  to  tell  me  what 
under  the  sun  makes  thee  always  follow  that  cow 
about  every  day  at  the  same  hour,  and  at  the  same 
distance  from  her  tail  ?" 

"  Because  the  cow  always  goes  before  me  !"  re 
plied  the  mysterious  man. 

Upon  which  the  widow  jumped  out  of  her  sick 
bed,  seized  an  old  shoe,  fired  it  at  the  mysterious 
man's  head,  and  was  miraculously  cured  from  that 
moment.  Doctor  Calomel  got  into  great  practice 
thereupon.  - 

Shearjashub  inherited  a  considerable  share  of  his 
mother's  inquiring  disposition,  and  was  very  inquis 
itive  about  the  affairs  of  other  people ;  but,  to  do 
him  justice,  he  took  pretty  good  care  to  keep  his 
own  to  himself,  like  a  discreet  lad  as  he  was.  Hav 
ing  invented  so  many  labour-saving  machines,  Ja- 
shub,  as  he  was  usually  called  by  the  neighbours, 
thought  it  was  great  nonsense  to  work  himself;  so 
he  set  his  machines  going,  and  took  to  the  amuse 
ment  of  killing  time,  which,  in  a  country  village,  is 
no  such  easy  matter.  It  required  a  considerable 
share  of  ingenuity.  His  favourite  mode  of  doing 
this  was  taking  his  gun  on  his  shoulder,  and  sally 
ing  forth  into  the  fields  and  woods,  followed  by  a 
cur,  whose  genealogy  was  perfectly  mysterious. 
Nobody  could  tel)  to  what  family  he  belonged ; 


THE    NYMPH    OF    THE    MOUNTAIN.  195 

certain  it  was,  that  he  was  neither  "  mongrel,  pup 
py,  whelp,  nor  hound,"  but  a  cur  of  low  degree, 
whose  delight  was  to  bask  in  the  sun  when  he  was 
not  out  with  his  young  master. 

In  this  way  Jashub  would  pass  day  after  day,  in 
what  he  called  sporting;  that  is  to  say,  toiling 
through  tangled  woods  and  rough  bog  meadows  and 
swamps,  that  quivered  like  a  jelly  at  every  step,  and 
returning  home  at  night  hungry  as  well  as  tired. 
Report  said  that  he  never  was  known  to  shoot  any 
thing  ;  and  thus  far  his  time  was  spent  innocently,  if 
not  improvingly. 

One  fast-day,  early  in  the  spring  of  1776,  Jashub 
went  forth  as  usual,  with  his  gun  on  his  shoulder, 
and  little  Snap  (such  was  the  name  of  the  dog)  at  his 
heels.  The  early  May  had  put  on  all  her  charms  ; 
a  thousand  little  patches  of  wild  violets  were  peep 
ing  forth  with  deep  blue  eyes ;  a  thousand,  yea, 
tens  of  thousands  of  little  buds  were  expanding  into 
leaves  apace ;  and  crowds  of  chirping  birds  were 
singing  a  hymn  to  the  jolly  laughing  spring.  Jashub 
could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to  fire  at  them ;  but  if 
he  had,  there  would  have  been  no  danger,  except  of 
frightening  the  little  warblers,  and  arresting  their 
song. 

Beguiled  by  the  beauties  of  Nature  and  her  charm 
ing  music,  Jashub  almost  unconsciously  wandered 
on  until  he  came  to  the  opening  of  a  deep  glen  in 
the  mountain,  which  rose  at  some  miles  distance, 
west  of  the  village.  It  was  formed  by  the  passage 
of  a  pure  crystal  stream,  which,  in  the  course  of 


196      THE  NYMPH  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

ages,  or  perhaps  by  a  single  effort,  had  divided  the 
mountain  about  the  space  of  twenty  yards,  ten  of 
which  were  occupied  by  the  brook,  which  silently 
wound  its  way  along  the  edge  of  steep  and  rocky 
precipices  several  hundred  feet  high,  that  formed 
the  barriers  of  the  glen  on  either  side.  These  tow 
ering  perpendicular  masses  of  gray  eternity  were 
here  and  there  green  with  the  adventurous  laurel, 
which,  fastening  its  roots  in  the  crevices,  nodded 
over  the  mighty  steep  in  fearful  dizziness.  Here 
and  there  a  little  spring  gushed  forth  high  up  among 
the  graybeard  rocks,  and  trickled  down  their  sides 
in  silvery  brightness.  In  other  places  patches  of 
isinglass  appeared,  sparkling  against  the  sober 
masses,  and  communicating  a  singularly  lustrous 
character  to  the  scene,  which  had  otherwise  been 
all  gloomy  solitude. 

Jashub  gazed  a  while  in  apprehensive  wonder, 
as  he  stood  at  the  entrance  of  these  everlasting 
gates.  Curiosity  prompted  him  to  enter,  and  ex 
plore  the  recesses  within,  while  a  certain  vague 
unwillingness  deterred  him.  At  length  curiosity, 
or  perhaps  fate,  which  had  decreed  that  he  should 
become  the  instrument  of  her  great  designs,  pre 
vailed  against  all  opposition,  and  he  entered  the 
gates  of  this  majestic  palace  of  nature.  He  slowly 
advanced,  sometimes  arrested  by  a  certain  feeling 
of  mysterious  awe  ;  at  others  driven  on  by  the 
power  which  had  assumed  the  direction  of  his  con 
duct,  until  he  arrived  at  the  centre  of  the  hallowed 
solitude.  Not  a  living  thing  breathed  around  him, 


THE  NYMPH  OP  THE  MOUNTAIN.     197 

except  his  little  dog,  and  his  gun  trembled  in  his 
hand.  All  was  gloom,  silence,  solitude,  deep  and 
profound.  The  brook  poured  forth  no  murmurs, 
the  birds  and  insects  seemed  to  have  shunned  the  un 
sunned  region,  where  everlasting  twilight  reigned ; 
and  the  scream  of  the  hawks,  pursuing  their  way 
across  the  deep  chasm,  was  hushed  as  they  passed. 

Jashub  was  arrested  by  the  melancholy  grandeur 
of  the  scene,  and  his  dog  looked  wistfully  in  his 
face,  as  if  he  wanted  to  go  home.  As  he  stood 
thus  lingering,  leaning  on  his  gun,  a  merry  strain 
broke  forth  upon  the  terrible  silence,  and  echoed 
through  the  glen.  The  sound  made  him  suddenly 
start,  in  doing  which  his  foot  somehow  or  other 
caught  in  the  lock  of  his  gun,  which  he  had  forgot 
to  uncock,  as  was  usual  with  him,  and  caused 
it  to  go  off.  The  explosion  rang  through  the  re 
cesses  of  the  glen  in  a  hundred  repetitions,  which 
were  answered  by  the  howlings  of  the  little  dog. 
As  the  echoes  gradually  subsided,  and  the  smoke 
cleared  away,  the  music  again  commenced.  It  was 
a  careless,  lively  air,  such  as  suited  the  taste  of  the 
young  man,  and  he  forgot  his  fears  in  his  love  of 
music. 

As  he  stood  thus  entranced  he  heard  a  voice, 
sweet,  yet  animating  as  the  clear  sound  of  the  trum 
pet,  exclaim,  , 

"  Shearjashub  !  Shearjashub  !" 

Jashub's  heart  bounded  into  his  throat,  and  pre 
vented  his  answering.   He  loaded  his  gun,  and  stood 
on  the  defensive. 
17* 


198      THE  NYMPH  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

In  a  moment  after  the  same  trumpet  voice  re 
peated  the  same  words, 

"  Shearjashub  !  Shearjashub  !" 

"  What  d'ye  want,  you  tarnal  kritter  ?"  at  length 
the  young  man  answered,  with  a  degree  of  courage 
that  afterwards  astonished  him. 

"  Listen— and  look  !" 

He  listened  and  looked,  but  saw  nothing,  until  a 
little  flourish  of  the  same  sprightly  tune  directed 
his  attention  to  the  spot  whence  it  came. 

High  on  the  summit  of  the  highest  perpendicular 
cliff,  which  shone  gorgeously  with  sparkling  isin 
glass,  seated  under  the  shade  of  a  tuft  of  laurels,  he 
beheld  a  female  figure,  holding  a  little  flageolet, 
and  playing  the  sprightly  air  which  he  had  just 
heard.  Her  height,  notwithstanding  the  distance, 
appeared  majestic  ;  the  flash  of  her  bright  beaming 
eye  illumined  the  depths  of  the  gloom,  and  her  air 
seemed  that  of  a  goddess.  She  was  dressed  in 
simple  robes  of  virgin  white,  and  on  her  head  she 
wore  a  cap,  such  as  has  since  been  consecrated  to 
Liberty  by  my  gallant  countrymen. 

Shearjashub  looked,  trembled,  and  was  silent. 
In  a  few  minutes,  however,  his  recollection  returned. 

"  Shearjashub  !"  exclaimed  the  lady  of  the  rock, 
"  listen !" 

But  Shearjashub  had  given  leg  bail.  Both  he 
and  his  faithful  squire,  little  Snap,  had  left  the 
haunted  glen  as  fast  as  their  feet  would  carry 
them. 

He  told  the  story  when  he  got  home,  with  some 


THE    NYMPH    OF   THE    MOUNTAIN.  199 

little  exaggeration.  Nobody  believed  him  except 
the  widow,  his  honoured  mother,  who  had  faith  to 
swallow  a  camel.  All  the  rest  laughed  at  him,  and 
the  wicked  damsels  of  the  village  were  always 
joking  about  his  mountain  sweetheart. 

At  last  he  got  out  of  patience,  and  one  day  de 
manded  of  those  who  were  bantering  him  what  proof 
they  would  have  of  the  truth  of  his  story. 

"  Why,"  said  old  Deacon  Mayhew,  "I  guess  I 
should  be  considerably  particular  satisfied  if  you 
would  bring  us  hum  that  same  fife  you  heard  the 
gal  play  on  so  finely." 

"  And  I,"  said  another,  "  will  believe  the  young 
squire  if  he'll  play  the  same  tune  on  it  he  heard 
yonder  in  the  mountain." 

Shearjashub  was  so  pestered  and  provoked  at 
last,  that  he  determined  to  put  his  courage  to  the 
proof,  and  see  whether  it  would  bear  him  out  in 
another  visit  to  the  chasm  in  the  mountain.  He 
thought  he  might  as  well  be  dead  as  have  no  com 
fort  of  his  life. 

"  I'll  be  darned  if  I  don't  go,"  said  he,  and  away 
he  went,  with  no  other  company  than  his  little  dog. 
It  was  on  the  fourth  day  of  July,  1776,  that  Shear 
jashub  wrought  himself  up  to  a  second  visit. 

"  I'm  just  come  of  age  this  very  day,"  said  he, 
"  and  I'll  show  the  kritters  I'm  not  made  a  man  for 
nothing." 

He  certainly  felt,  as  he  afterwards  confessed,  a 
little  skittish  on  this  occasion,  and  his  dog  seemed 
not  much  to  relish  the  excursion.  Shearjashub  had 


200      THE  NYMPH  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN. 

his  gun,  but  had  not  the  heart  to  fire  at  any  of  the 
birds  that  flitted  about,  and  seemed  as  if  they  were 
not  afraid  of  coining  nigh  him.  His  mind  ran  upon 
other  matters  entirely.  He  was  a  long  while  get- 
ging  to  the  chasm  in  the  mountain.  Sometimes  he 
would  stop  to  rest,  as  he  said  to  himself,  though  he 
was  not  in  the  least  tired ;  sometimes  he  found 
himself  standing  still,  admiring  nothing ;  and  once 
or  twice  actually  detected  his  feet  moving  on  their 
way  home,  instead  of  towards  the  mountain. 

On  arriving  at  the  vast  gates  that,  as  it  were, 
guarded  the  entrance  to  the  glen,  he  halted  to  con 
sider  the  matter.  All  was  silence,  repose,  gloom, 
and  sublimity.  His  spirit  at  first  sunk  under  the 
majesty  of  nature,  but  at  length  became  gradually  in 
spired  by  the  scene  before  him  with  something  of 
a  kindred  dignity.  He  marched  forward  with  a 
vigorous  step  and  firm  heart,  rendered  the  more 
firm  by  hearing  and  seeing  nothing  of  the  white 
nymph  of  the  rock  or  her  sprightly  music.  He 
hardly  knew  whether  he  wished  to  see  her  or  not, 
thinking  if  she  appeared  he  might  be  inspired  to 
run  away  again  ;  and  if  she  did  not,  the  deacon  and 
the  girls  would  laugh  at  him  worse  than  ever. 

With  these  conflicting  thoughts  he  arrived  at  the 
very  centre  of  the  gloomy  solitude,  where  he  stood 
a  few  moments,  expecting  to  hear  the  music.  All 
was  loneliness ;  Repose  lay  sleeping  on  his  bed  of 
rocks,  and  Silence  reigned  alone  in  her  chosen  re 
treat. 

"  Is  it  possible  that  I  was  dreaming  the  other 


THE    NYMPH    OF    THE    MOUNTAIN.  201 

day,  when  I  was  here,  as  these  tarnal  krilters  twit 
me  I  was  ?"  asked  the  young  man  of  himself. 

He  was  answered  by  the  voice  of  the  white  girl 
of  the  mountain,  exclaiming,  in  the  same  sweet  yet 
clear,  animating,  trumpet  tones, 

"Shearjashub!  Shearjashub  !  listen." 

Jashub's  legs  felt  some  little  inclination  to  run 
away  ;  but  this  time  he  kept  his  ground  like  a  brave 
fellow. 

Again  the  same  sprightly  air  echoed  through  the 
silence  of  the  deep  profound,  in  strains  of  anima 
ting  yet  simple,  careless  vivacity.  Shearjashub 
began  to  feel  himself  inspired.  He  bobbed  his 
head  from  side  to  side  to  suit  the  air,  and  was  once 
or  twice  on  the  point  of  cutting  a  caper. 

He  felt  his  bosom  thrill  with  unwonted  energies, 
and  a  new  vigour  animate  his  frame  as  he  contem 
plated  the  glorious  figure  of  the  mountain  nymph, 
and  listened  to  her  sprightly  flageolet. 

"  Shearjashub  !"  cried  the  nymph,  after  finish 
ing  her  strain  of  music,  "  listen  !" 

"  Speak — I  hear,"  said  the  young  man. 

"  My  name  is  Liberty  ;  dost  thou  know  me  ?" 

"  I  have  heard  my  father  and  grandfather  speak 
of  thee,  and  say  they  came  to  the  New  World  to 
seek  thee." 

"  Well,  I  am  found  at  last.     Listen  to  me." 

"  Speak  on." 

"Your  country  has  just  devoted  herself  for  ever 
to  me  and  my  glory.  Your  countrymen  have  this 
day  pronounced  themselves  freemen,  and  they  shall 
i3 


202  THE    NYMPH    OF   THE    MOUNTAIN. 

be  what  they  have  willed,  in  spite  of  fate  or  for 
tune.  But  my  blessings  are  never  thrown  away  on 
cowards ;  they  are  to  be  gained  by  toil,  suffering, 
hunger,  wounds,  and  death ;  by  courage  and  per 
severance  ;  by  virtue  and  patriotism.  The  wrath 
and  the  mighty  energies  of  the  oppressor  are  now 
directed  against  your  people  ;  hunger  assails  them ; 
force  overmatches  them,  and  their  spirits  begin  to 
fail.  Take  this  pipe,"  and  she  flung  him  the  little 
flageolet,  which  he  caught  in  his  hand.  "  Canst 
thou  play  on  it  ?  Try." 

He  put  it  to  his  lips,  and  to  his  surprise,  pro 
duced  the  same  animating  strain  he  had  heard  from 
the  nymph  of  the  mountain. 

"  Now  go  forth  among  the  people  and  their  ar 
mies,  and  inspire  them  for  battle.  Wherever  thou 
goest  with  thy  pipe,  and  whenever  thou  playest 
that  air,  I  will  be  with  thee  and  thy  countrymen. 
Go,  fear  not ;  those  who  deserve  me  shall  always 
win  me.  Farewell — we  shall  meet  again."  So 
saying,  she  vanished  behind  the  tuft  of  laurels. 

Shearjashub  marched  straight  home  with  his 
pipe,  and  somehow  or  other  felt  he  did  not  quite 
know  how;  he  felt  as  if  he  could  eat  gunpowder, 
and  snap  his  fingers  at  the  deacon. 

"  What  the  dickens  has  got  in  the  kritter  ?"  said 
the  deacon,  when  he  saw  him  strutting  along  like  a 
captain  of  militia. 

"  I  declare,  Jashub  looks  like  a  continental,"  ex 
claimed  the  girls. 
Just  then  Shearjashub  put  his  pipe  to  his  mouth, 


THE    NYMPH    OF    THE    MOUNTAIN.  203 

and  played  the  tune  he  had  learned,  as  if  by  magic, 
from  the  mountain  nymph ;  whereat  Deacon  May- 
hew  ^iade  for  the  little  white  meeting  house,  whi 
ther  all  the  villagers  followed  him,  and  preached  a 
sermon,  calling  on  the  people  to  rise  and  fight  for 
liberty,  in  such  stirring  strains  that  forthwith  all  the 
men,  young  and  old,  took  their  muskets  and  went 
out  in  defence  of  their  country,  under  the  command 
of  Shearjashub.  Wherever  he  came  he  played  the 
magic  tune  on  his  pipe,  and  the  men,  like  those  of 
his  native  village,  took  to  their  arms,  and  went 
forth  to  meet  the  oppressor,  like  little  David  against 
Goliath,  armed  with  a  sling  and  a  stone. 

They  joined  the  army  of  Liberty,  which  they 
found  dispirited  with  defeat,  and  weak  with  suffer 
ing  and  want.  They  scarcely  dared  hope  for  suc 
cess  to  their  cause,  and  a  general  gloom  depressed 
the  hearts  of  all  the  true  friends  of  freedom.  In 
this  state  the  enemy  attacked  them,  and  threw 
them  into  confusion,  when  Shearjashub  came  on  at 
the  head  of  his  troops,  playing  his  inspiring  music 
with  might  and  main.  Wherever  he  went  the 
sounds  seemed  to  awaken  the  spirit  of  heroism  in 
every  breast.  Those  who  were  retreating  rallied  ; 
and  those  who  stood  their  ground  maintained  it 
more  stoutly  than  ever.  The  victory  remained 
with  the  sons  of  Liberty,  and  Shearjashub  celebrated 
it  with  a  tune  on  his  pipe,  which  echoed  through 
the  whole  land,  and  wakened  it  to  new  triumphs. 

After  a  hard  and  bloody  struggle,  in  which  the 
pipe  of  Shearjashub  animated  the  very  clods  of  the 


204  THE    NYMPH    OF    THE    MOUNTAIN. 

valley  wherever  he  went,  the  promise  of  the  nymph 
of  the  mountain  was  fulfilled.  The  countrymen  of 
Shearjashub  were  free  and  independent.  ^They 
were  about  to  repose  under  the  laurels  they  had 
reaped,  and  to  wear  what  they  had  so  dearly  won. 

Shearjashub  also  departed  for  his  native  village 
with  his  pipe,  which  had  so  materially  assisted  in 
the  attainment  of  the  blessings  of  freedom.  His 
way  lay  through  the  chasm  in  the  mountain,  where 
he  first  encountered  the  nymph  with  the  cap  and 
snow-white  robe.  He  was  anticipating  the  happi 
ness  of  seeing  his  aged  mother,  who  had  lived 
through  the  long  war,  principally  on  the  excite 
ment  of  news,  and  the  still  more  near  and  dear  hap 
piness  of  taking  to  his  bosom  the  girl  of  his  heart, 
Miss  Prudence  Worthy,  as  fair  a  maid  as  ever 
raised  a  sigh  in  the  bosom  of  lusty  youth. 

He  had  got  to  the  centre  of  the  glen  when  he  was 
roused  from  his  sweet  anticipations  by  the  well- 
remembered  voice  of  the  nymph  of  the  mountain, 
who  sat  on  the  same  inaccessible  rock,  under  the 
same  tuft  of  laurel,  where  he  had  first  seen  her, 
with  an  eagle  at  her  side. 

"  Shearjashub  !"  cried  she,  in  a  voice  which  made 
the  echoes  of  the  rocks  mad  with  ecstasy — "  Shear 
jashub  !  thou  hast  done  well,  and  deserved  nobly  of 
thy  country.  The  thought  of  that  is,  in  itself, 
a  glorious  reward  for  toil,  danger,  and  suffering. 
But  thou  shalt  have  one  as  dear,  if  not  dearer  than 
even  this.  Look  where  it  comes." 

Shearjashub  looked,  and  beheld  afar  off  a  figure 


THE  NYMPH  OF  THE  MOUNTAIN.      205 

ail  in  white  coming  towards  him,  at  the  entrance  of 
the  glen.  It  approached  nearer,  and  it  was  a  wo- 
mand^earer  yet,  and  it  was  a  young  woman ;  still 
nearer,  and  Shearjashub  rushed  towards  it,  and 
kissed  its  blushing  cheek.  It  was  the  girl  of  his 
heart,  Miss  Prudence  Worthy. 

"  This  is  thy  other  blessing,"  exclaimed  the 
mountain  nymph,  the  sight  of  whom  made  Miss 
Prudence  a  little  jealous ;  "  a  richer  reward  for 
noble  exertions  than  a  virtuous  woman  I  know 
not  of.  Live  free,  live  virtuous,  and  then  thou 
wilt  be  happy.  I  shall  be  with  thee  an  invisible 
witness,  an  invisible  protector ;  but,  in  the  mean 
while,  should  the  spirit  of  the  people  ever  flag,  and 
their  hearts  fail  them  in  time  of  peril,  go  forth  among 
them  as  thou  didst  before,  and  rouse  them  with  thy 
pipe  and  thy  music.  Farewell,  and  be  happy  !" 

The  nymph  disappeared,  and  the  little  jealous 
pang  felt  by  Miss  Prudence  melted  away  in  meas 
ureless  confidence  and  love.  The  tune  of  the 
mountain  nymph  was  played  over  and  over  again  at 
Shearjashub's  wedding,  and  ever  afterwards  became 
known  by  the  name  of  YANKEE  DOODLE. 
18 


THE 

RIDE   OF   SAINT   NICHOLAS 

ON 

NEWYEAR'S    EVE. 


OF  all  the  cities  in  this  New  World,  that  which 
once  bore  the  name  of  Fort  Orange,  but  now  bears 
it  no  more,  is  the  favourite  of  the  good  St.  Nicho 
las.  It  is  there  that  he  hears  the  sound  of  his  na 
tive  language,  and  sees  the  honest  Dutch  pipe  in 
the  mouths  of  a  few  portly  burghers,  who,  disdain 
ing  the  pestilent  innovations  of  modern  times,  still 
cling  with  honest  obstinacy  to  the  dress,  the  man 
ners,  and  customs  of  old  faderland.  It  is  there,  too, 
that  they  have  instituted  a  society  in  honour  of 
the  excellent  saint,  whose  birthday  they  celebrate 
in  a  manner  worthy  of  all  commendation. 

True  it  is,  that  the  city  of  his  affections  .has  from 
time  to  time  committed  divers  great  offences, 
which  sorely  wounded  the  feelings  of  St.  Nicholas, 
and  almost  caused  him  to  withdraw  his  patronage 
from  its  backsliding  citizens.  First,  by  adopting 
the  newfangled  style  of  beginning  the  year  at  the 
bidding  of  the  old  lady  of  Babylon,  whereby  the 
jolly  Newyear  was  so  jostled  out  of  place  that  the 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  207 

good  saint  scarcely  knew  where  to  look  for  it. 
Next,  they  essayed  themselves  to  learn  outland 
ish  ^M-Jues,  whereby  they  gradually  sophisticated 
then^Rwn,  insomuch  that  he  could  hardly  un 
derstand  them.  Thirdly,  they  did,  from  time  to 
time,  admit  into  their  churches  preachings  and  sing 
ings  in  the  upstart  English  language,  until  by  de 
grees  the  ancient  worship  became  adulterated  in 
such  a  manner  that  the  indignant  St.  Nicholas, 
when  he  first  witnessed  it,  did,  for  the  only  time  in 
his  life,  come  near  to  uttering  a  great  oath,  by  ex 
claiming,  "  Wat  donderdag  is  dat  ?"  Now  be  it 
known  that  had  he  said,  "  Wat  donder  is  dat,"  it 
would  have  been  downright  swearing  ;  so  you  see 
what  a  narrow  escape  he  had. 

Not  content  with  these  backslidings,  the  burghers 
of  Fort  Orange — a  pestilence  on  all  new  names  ! — 
suffered  themselves  by  degrees  to  be  corrupted  by 
various  modern  innovations,  under  the  mischievous 
disguise  of  improvements.  Forgetting  the  rever 
ence  due  to  their  ancestors,  who  eschewed  all  in 
ternal  improvement,  except  that  of  the  mind  and 
heart,  they  departed  from  the  venerable  customs 
of  the  faderland,  and  pulling  down  the  old  houses 
that,  scorning  all  appearance  of  ostentation,  mod 
estly  presented  the  little  end  to  the  street,  began 
to  erect  in  their  places  certain  indescribable  build 
ings,  with  the  broadsides  as  it  were  turned  front 
wise,  by  which  strange  contortion  the  comeliness 
of  Fort  Orange  was  utterly  destroyed.  It  is  on 
record  that  a  heavy  judgment  fell  upon  the  head 


208  THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

of  the  first  man  who  adventured  on  this  daring  in 
novation.  His  money  gave  out  before  this  mon 
strous  novelty  was  completed,  and  he  invenlMi  the 
pernicious  system  of  borrowing  and  mort^iging, 
before  happily  unknown  among  these  worthy  citi 
zens,  who  were  utterly  confounded,  not  long  after 
wards,  at  seeing  the  house  change  its  owner — a 
thing  that  had  never  happened  before  in  that  goodly 
community,  save  when  the  son  entered  on  the  in 
heritance  of  his  father. 

Becoming  gradually  more  incorrigible  in  their 
backslidirgs,  they  were  seduced  into  opening,  wi 
dening,  and  regulating  the  streets ;  making  the 
crooked  straight  and  the  narrow  wide,  thereby  caus 
ing  sad  inroads  into  the  strong  boxes  of  divers  of 
the  honest  burghers,  who  became  all  at  once  very 
rich,  saving  that  they  had  no  money  to  go  to  mar 
ket.  To  cap  the  climax  of  their  enormities,  they 
at  last  committed  the  egregious  sacrilege  of  pulling 
down  the  ancient  and  honourable  Dutch  church, 
which  stood  right  in  the  middle  of  State-street,  or 
Staats-street,  being  so  called  after  the  family  of 
that  name,  from  which  I  am  lineally  descended. 

At  this  the  good  St.  Nicholas  was  exceedingly 
grieved  ;  and  when,  by  degrees,  his  favourite  burgh 
ers  left  off  eating  sturgeon,  being  thereto  instigated 
by  divers  scurvy  jests  of  certain  silly  strangers, 
that  knew  not  the  excellence  of  that  savoury  fish, 
he  cried  out  in  the  bitterness  of  his  soul,  "  Onbe- 
grypelyk !" — "  Incredible!"  meaning  thereby  that  he 
could  scarcely  believe  his  eyes.  In  the  bitterness  of 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  209 

his  soul  he  had  resolved  to  return  to  faderland,  and 
leave  his  beloved  city  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the 
vortex  of  improvement.  He  was  making  his  pro 
gress  jftrough  the  streets,  to  take  his  last  farewell, 
in  melancholy  mood,  when  he  came  to  the  outlet  of 
the  Grand  Canal,  just  then  completed.  "  Is  het  mo- 
gelyk  ?"— which  means,  is  it  possible — exclaimed 
St.  Nicholas ;  and  thereupon  he  was  so  delighted 
with  this  proof  that  his  beloved  people  had  not  al 
together  degenerated  from  their  ancestors,  that  he 
determined  not  to  leave  them  to  strange  saints,  out 
landish  tongues,  and  modern  innovations.  He  took 
a  sail  on  the  canal,  and  returned  in  such  measure 
less  content,  that  he  blessed  the  good  city  of  Fort 
Orange,  as  he  evermore  called  it,  and  resolved  to 
distribute  a  more  than  usual  store  of  his  Newyear 
cookies,  at  the  Christmas  holydays.  That  jovial 
season  was  now  fast  approaching.  The  autumn 
frosts  had  already  invested  the  forests  with  a  man 
tle  of  glory ;  the  farmers  were  in  their  fields  and 
orchards,  gathering  in  the  corn  and  apples,  or 
making  cider,  the  wholesome  beverage  of  virtuous 
simplicity ;  the  robins,  blackbirds,  and  all  the  an 
nual  emigrants  to  southern  climes,  had  passed 
away  in  flocks,  like  the  adventurers  to  the  far  West ; 
the  bluebird  alone  lingered  last  of  all  to  sing  his 
parting  song  ;  and  sometimes  of  a  morning,  the 
river  showed  a  little  fretted  border  of  ice,  looking 
like  a  fringe  of  lace  on  the  garment  of  some  de 
cayed  dowager.  At  length  the  liquid  glass  of  the 

river  cooled  into  a  wide,  immoveable  mirror,  glisten- 
18 


210  THE    RIDE    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS. 

ing  in  the  sun ;  the  trees,  all  save  the  evergreens, 
stood  bare  to  the  keen  cold  winds ;  the  fields  were 
covered  with  snow,  affording  no  lures  to  tempt  to 
rural  wanderings;  the  enjoyments  of  life  gradually 
centred  themselves  at  the  cheerful  fireside — it  was 
winter,  and  Newyear's  eve  was  come  again  ! 

The  night  was  clear,  calm,  and  cold,  and  the 
bright  stars  glittered  in  the  heavens  in  such  mul 
titudes,  that  every  man  might  have  had  a  star  to 
himself.  The  worthy  patriarchs  of  Fort  Orange, 
having  gathered  around  them  their  children,  and 
children's  children,  even  unto  the  third  and  fourth 
generation,  were  enjoying  themselves  in  innocent 
revelry  at  the  cheerful  fireside.  All  the  enjoyments 
of  life  had  contracted  themselves  into  the  domestic 
circle ;  the  streets  were  as  quiet  as  a  churchyard, 
and  not  even  the  stroke  of  the  watchman  was  heard 
on  the  curbstone.  Gradually  it  waxed  late,  and 
the  city  clocks  rang,  in  the  silence  of  night,  the 
hour  which  not  one  of  the  orderly  citizens  had 
heard,  except  at  midday,  since  the  last  anniversary 
of  the  happy  Newy ear,  save  peradventure  troubled 
with  a  toothache,  or  some  such  unseemly  irritation. 

The  doleful  warning,  which  broke  upon  the 
frosty  air  like  the  tolling  of  a  funeral  bell,  roused 
the  sober  devotees  of  St.  Nicholas  to  a  sense  of 
their  trespasses  on  the  waning  night,  and  after  one 
good,  smoking  draught  of  spiced  Jamaica  to  the 
patron  saint,  they,  one  and  all,  young  and  old,  hied 
them  to  bed,  that  he  might  have  a  fair  opportunity 
to  bestow  his  favours  without  being  seen  by  mortal 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  211 

eye.  For  be  it  known,  that  St.  Nicholas,  like 
all  really  heart-whole  generous  fellows,  loves  to  do 
good  in  secret,  and  eschews  those  pompous  bene 
factions  which  are  duly  recorded  in  the  newspa 
pers,  being  of  opinion  they  only  prove  that  the  van 
ity  of  man  is  sometimes  an  overmatch  for  his  ava 
rice. 

Having  allowed  them  fifteen  minutes,  which  is 
as  much  as  a  sober  burgher  of  good  morals  and 
habits  requires,  to  get  as  fast  asleep  as  a  church, 
St.  Nicholas,  having  harnessed  his  pony,  and  loaded 
his  little  wagon  with  a  store  of  good  things  for  well- 
behaved,  diligent  children,  together  with  whips  and 
other  mementoes  for  undutiful  varlets,  did  set  forth 
gayly  on  his  errand  of  benevolence. 

Vuur  en  vlammen !  how  the  good  saint  did  hurry 
through  the  streets,  up  one  chimney  and  down  an 
other  ;  for  be  it  known,  they  are  not  such  miserable 
narrow  things  as  those  of  other  cities,  where  the 
claims  of  ostentation  are  so  voracious  that  people 
can't  afford  to  keep  up  good  fires,  and  the  chim 
neys  are  so  narrow  that  the  little  sweeps  of  seven 
years  old  often  get  themselves  stuck  fast,  to  the 
imminent  peril  of  their  lives.  You  may  think  he 
had  a  good  deal  of  business  on  hand,  being  obliged 
to  visit  every  house  in  Fort  Orange,  between  twelve 
o'clock  and  daylight,  with  the  exception  of  some 
few  would-be  fashionable  upstarts,  who  had  mor 
tally  offended  him,  by  turning  up  their  noses  at  the 
simple  jollifications  and  friendly  greetings  of  the 
merry  Newyear.  Accordingly,  he  rides  like  the 


212  THE    RIDE    OF    ST.    NICHOLAS. 

wind,  scarcely  touching  the  ground  ;  and  this  is  the 
reason  that  he  is  never  seen,  except  by  a  rare 
chance,  which  is  the  cause  why  certain  unbelieving 
sinners,  who  scoff  at  old  customs  and  notions,  either 
really  do,  or  pretend  to  doubt,  whether  the  good 
things  found  on  Christmas  and  Newyear  morn 
ings  in  the  stockings  of  the  little  varlets  of  Fort 
Orange  and  New-Amsterdam,  are  put  there  by  the 
jolly  St.  Nicholas  or  not.  Beshrew  them,  say  I — 
and  may  they  never  taste  the  blessing  of  his  boun 
ty  !  Goeden  Hemel !  as  if  I  myself,  being  a  kins 
man  of  the  saint,  don't  know  him  as  well  as  a  debtor 
does  his  creditor !  But  people  are  grown  so  wise 
nowadays,  that  they  believe  in  nothing  but  the  in 
creased  value  of  property. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  St.  Nicholas  went  forth  blithely 
on  his  goodly  errand,  without  minding  the  intense 
cold,  for  he  was  kept  right  warm  by  the  benevolence 
of  his  heart,  and  when  that  failed,  he  ever  and  anon 
addressed  himself  to  a  snug  little  pottle,  the  con 
tents  of  which  did  smoke  lustily  when  he  pulled 
out  the  stopper,  a  piece  of  snow-white  corn  cob. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  specify  one  by  one  the 
visits  paid  that  night  by  the  good  saint,  or  the  va 
rious  adventures  wh»ich  he  encountered.  I  there 
fore  content  myself,  and  I  trust  my  worthy  and  ex 
cellent  readers,  with  dwelling  briefly  on  those  which 
appear  to  me  most  worthy  of  descending  to  poster 
ity,  and  withal  convey  excellent  moral  lessons,  with 
out  which  history  is  naught,  whether  it  be  true  or 
false. 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  213 

After  visiting  various  honest  little  Dutch  houses, 
with  notched  roofs,  and  the  gable  ends  to  the  street, 
leaving  his  benedictions,  St.  Nicholas  at  length 
came  to  a  goodly  mansion  bearing  strong  marks  of 
being  sophisticated  by  modern  fantastic  innovations. 
He  would  have  passed  it  by  in  scorn,  had  he  not 
remembered  that  it  belonged  to  a  descendant  of  one 
of  his  favoured  votaries,  who  had  passed  away  to 
his  long  home  without  being  once  backslided  from 
the  customs  of  his  ancestors.  -Respect  for  the  mem 
ory  of  this  worthy  man  wrought  upon  his  feelings, 
and  he  forthwith  dashed  down  the  chimney,  where 
he  stuck  fast  in  the  middle,  and  came  nigh  being 
suffocated  with  the  fumes  of  anthracite  coal,  which 
this  degenerate  descendant  of  a  pious  ancestor, 
who  spent  thousands  in  useless  and  unseemly  os 
tentation,  burned  by  way  of  economy. 

If  the  excellent  saint  had  not  been  enveloped,  as 
it  were,  in  the  odour  of  sanctity,  which  in  some 
measure  protected  him  from  the  poison  of  this  pes 
tilent  vapour,  it  might  have  gone  hard  with  him ; 
as  it  was,  he  was  sadly  bewildered,  when  his  little 
pony,  which  liked  the  predicament  no  better  than 
his  master,  made  a  violent  plunge,  drew  the  wagon 
through  the  narrow  passage,  and  down  they  came 
plump  into  a  magnificent  bedchamber,  filled  with 
all  sorts  of  finery,  such  as  wardrobes,  bedizened 
with  tawdry  ornaments ;  satin  chairs  too  good  to  be 
looked  at  or  sat  upon,  and  therefore  covered  with 
brown  linen ;  a  bedstead  of  varnished  mahogany, 
with  a  canopy  over  it  somewhat  like  a  cocked  hat, 


S14  THE    BIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

with  a  plume  of  ostrich  feathers  instead  of  orthodox 
valances  and  the  like  ;  and  a  looking-glass  large 
enough  to  reflect  a  Dutch  city. 

St.  Nicholas  contemplated  the  pair  who  slept 
in  this  newfangled  abomination  with  a  mingled 
feeling  of  pity  and  indignation,  though  I  must  say 
the  wife  looked  very  pretty  in  her  lace  nightcap, 
with  one  arm  as  white  as  snow  partly  uncovered. 
But  he  soon  turned  away,  being  a  devout  and  self- 
denying  saint,  to  seek  for  the  stockings  of  the  little 
children,  who  were  innocent  of  these  unseemly  in 
novations.  But  what  was  his  horror  at  finding  that, 
instead  of  being  hung  up  in  the  chimney  corner, 
they  were  thrown  carelessly  on  the  floor,  and  that 
the  little  souls,  who  lay  asleep  in  each  other's  arms 
in  another  room,  lest  they  should  disturb  their  pa 
rents,  were  thus  deprived  of  all  the  pleasant  antici 
pations  accompanying  the  approaching  jolly  New- 
year, 

"  Een  vervlocte  jonge,"  said  he  to  himself,  for  he 
never  uttered  his  maledictions  aloud,  "  to  rob  their 
little  ones  of  such  wholesome  and  innocent  delights  ! 
But  they  shall  not  be  disappointed."  So  he  sought 
the  cold  and  distant  chamber  of  the  children,  who 
were  virtuous  and  dutiful,  who,  when  they  waked 
in  the  morning,  found  the  bed  covered  with  good 
things,  and  were  as  happy  as  the  day  is  long. 
When  St.  Nicholas  returned  to  the  splendid  cham 
ber,  which,  be  it  known,  was  furnished  with  the 
spoils  of  industrious  unfortunate  people,  to  whom 
the  owner  lent  money,  charging  them  so  much  the 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  215 

more  in  proportion  to  their  necessities.  It  is  true 
that  he  gave  some  of  the  wealth  he  thus  got  over 
the  duyvel's  back,  as  it  were,  to  public  charities, 
and  sometimes  churches,  when  he  knew  it  would 
get  into  the  newspapers,  by  which  he  obtained  the 
credit  of  being  very  pious  and  charitable.  But  St. 
Nicholas  was  too  sensible  and  judicious  not  to  know 
that  the  only  charitable  and  pious  donations  agree 
able  to  the  Giver  of  good,  are  those  which  are 
honestly  come  by.  The  alms  which  are  got  by  ill 
means  can  never  come  to  good,  and  it  is  better  to 
give  back  to  those  from  whom  we  have  taken  it 
dishonestly  even  one  fourth,  yea,  one  tenth,  than  to 
bestow  ten  times  as  much  on  those  who  have  no 
such  claim.  The  true  atonement  for  injuries  18 
that  made  to  the  injured  alone.  All  other  is  a  cheat 
in  the  eye  of  Heaven.  You  cannot  settle  the  ac 
count  by  giving  to  Peter  what  you  have  filched  from 
Paul 

So  thought  the  good  St.  Nicholas,  as  he  revolved 
in  his  mind  a  plan  for  punishing  this  degenerate 
caitiff,  who  despised  his  ordinances  and  customs, 
and  was  moreover  one  who,  in  dealing  with  bor 
rowers,  not  only  shaved  but  skinned  them.  Re 
membering  not  the  perils  of  the  chimney,  he  was 
about  departing  the  same  way  he  came,  but  the 
little  pony  obstinately  refused  ;  and  the  good  saint, 
having  first  taken  off  the  lace  nightcap,  and  put  a 
foolscap  in  its  place,  and  given  the  money  lender  a 
tweak  of  the  nose  that  made  him  roar,  whipped 
instantly  through  the  keyhole  to  pursue  his  be- 


216  THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

nevolent  tour  through  the  ancient  city  of  Fort  Or 
ange. 

Gliding  through  the  streets  unheard  and  unseen, 
he  at  length  came  to  a  little  winding  lane,  from 
which  his  quick  ear  caught  the  sound  of  obstrep 
erous  revelry.  Stopping  his  pony,  and  listening 
more  attentively,  he  distinguished  the  words,  "  Ich 
ben  Liederich,"  roared  out  in  a  chorus  of  mingled 
•voices  seemingly  issuing  from  a  little  low  house  of 
the  true  orthodox  construction,  standing  on  the 
right-hand  side,  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred  yards, 
or  thereabout. 

"Wat  donderdag!"  exclaimed  St.  Nicholas,  "is 
mine  old  friend,  Baltus  Van  Loon,  keeping  it  up  at 
this  time  of  the  morning  ?  The  old  rogue  !  but  I'll 
punish  him  for  this  breach  of  the  good  customs  of 
Fort  Orange."  So  he  halted  on  the  top  of  Baltus's 
chimney,  to  consider  the  best  way  of  bringing  it 
about,  and  was,  all  at  once,  saluted  in  the  nostrils 
by  such  a  delectable  perfume,  arising  from  a  cer 
tain  spiced  beverage,  with  which  the  substantial 
burghers  were  wont  to  recreate  themselves  at  this 
season  of  the  year,  that  he  was  sorely  tempted  to 
join  a  little  in  the  revelry  below,  and  punish  the 
merry  caitiffs  afterwards.  Presently  he  heard  hon 
est  Baltus  propose — "The  jolly  St.  Nicholas,"  as  a 
toast,  which  was  drunk  in  a  full  bumper,  with  great 
rejoicing  and  acclamation. 

St.  Nicholas  could  stand  it  no  longer,  but  de 
scended  forthwith  into  the  little  parlour  of  old  Bal 
tus,  thinking,  by-the-way,  that,  just  to  preserve  ap- 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  217 

pearances,  he  would  lecture  the  roistering  rogues 
a  little  for  keeping  such  late  hours,  and,  provided 
Baltus  could  give  a  good  reason,  or  indeed  any  rea 
son  at  all,  for  such  an  unseemly  transgression,  he 
would  then  sit  down  with  them,  and  take  some  of 
the  savoury  beverage  that  had  regaled  his  nostrils 
while  waiting  at  the  top  of  the  chimney. 

The  roistering  rogues  were  so  busy  roaring  out, 
"  Ich  ben  Liederich,"  that  they  did  not  take  note  of 
the  presence  of  the  saint,  until  he  cried  out  with  a 
loud  and  angry  voice,  "  Wat  blikslager  is  dat  ?" — 
he  did  not  say  blixem,  because  that  would  have  been 
little  better  than  swearing.  "  Ben  je  be  dondered, 
to  be  carousing  here  at  this  time  of  night,  ye  an 
cient,  and  not  venerable  sinners  ?" 

Old  Baltus  was  not  a  little  startled  at  the  intru 
sion  of  the  strangers — for,  if  the  truth  must  out,  he 
was  a  little  in  for  it,  and  saw  double,  as  is  usual 
at  such  times.  This  caused  such  a  confusion  in 
his  head  that  he  forgot  to  rise  from  his  seat,  and 
pay  due  honour  to  his  visiter,  as  did  the  rest  of  the 
company. 

"  Are  you  not  ashamed  of  yourselves,"  continued 
the  saint,  "  to  set  such  a  bad  example  to  the  neigh 
bourhood,  by  carousing  at  this  time  of  the  morning, 
contrary  to  good  old  customs,  known  and  accepted 
by  all,  except  such  noisy  splutterkins  as  your 
selves  ?" 

"  This  time  of  the  morning,"  replied  old  Baltus, 
who  had  his  full  portion  of  Dutch  courage — "  this 
time  of  the  morning,  did  you  say  ?  Look  yonder, 
19  K 


218  THE    RIDE    OP    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

and  see  with  your  own  eyes  whether  it  is  morning 
or  not." 

The  cunning  rogue,  in  order  to  have  a  good  ex 
cuse  for  transgressing  the  canons  of  St.  Nicholas, 
had  so  managed  it,  that  the  old  clock  in  the  corner 
had  run  down,  and  now  pointed  to  the  hour  of  elev 
en,  where  it  remained  stationary,  like  a  rusty  wea 
thercock.  St.  Nicholas  knew  this  as  well  as  old 
Baltus  himself,  and  could  not  help  being  mightily 
tickled  at  this  device.  He  told  Baltus  that  this 
being  the  case,  with  permission  of  his  host  he 
would  sit  down  by  the  fire  and  warm  himself,  till 
it  was  time  to  set  forth  again,  seeing  he  had  mis 
taken  the  hour. 

Baltus,  who  by  this  time  began  to  perceive  that 
there  was  but  one  visiter  instead  of  two,  now  rose 
from  the  table  with  much  ado,  and  approaching  the 
stranger,  besought  him  to  take  a  seat  among  the 
jolly  revellers,  seeing  they  were  there  assembled 
in  honour  of  St.  Nicholas,  and  not  out  of  any  re 
gard  to  the  lusts  of  the  flesh.  In  this  he  was  joined 
by  the  rest  of  the  company,  so  that  St.  Nicholas, 
being  a  good-natured  fellow,  at  length  suffered 
himself  to  be  persuaded,  whereto  he  was  mightily 
incited  by  the  savoury  fumes  issuing  from  a  huge 
pitcher  standing  smoking  in  the  chimney  corner. 
So  he  sat  down  with  old  Baltus,  and  being  called  on 
for  a  toast,  gave  them  "  Old  Faderland"  in  a  bumper. 

Then  they  had  a  high  time  of  it  you  may  be  sure. 
Old  Baltus  sang  a  famous  song  celebrating  the 
valour  of  our  Dutch  ancestors,  and  their  triumph 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  219 

over  the  mighty  power  of  Spain  after  a  struggle  of 
more  than  a  generation,  in  which  the  meads  of  Hol 
land  smoked,  and  her  canals  were  red  with  blood. 
Goeden  Hemel !  but  I  should  like  to  have  been 
there,  for  I  hope  it  would  have  been  nothing  un 
seemly  for  one  of  my  cloth  to  have  joined  in  chorus 
with  the  excellent  St.  Nicholas.  Then  they  talked 
about  the  good  old  times  when  the  son  who  departed 
from  the  customs  of  his  ancestors  was  considered 
little  better  than  misbegotten ;  lamented  over  the 
interloping  of  such  multitudes  of  idle  flaunting  men 
and  women  in  their  way  to  and  from  the  springs  ; 
the  increase  of  taverns,  the  high  price  of  everything, 
and  the  manifold  backslidings  of  the  rising  genera 
tion.  Ever  and  anon,  old  Baltus  would  observe 
that  sorrow  was  as  dry  as  a  corn  cob,  and  pour  out 
a  full  bumper  of  the  smoking  beverage,  until  at  last 
it  came  to  pass  that  honest  Baltus  and  his  worthy 
companions,  being  not  used  to  such  late  hours,  fell 
fast  a  sleep  in  their  goodly  armchairs,  and  snored 
lustily  in  concert.  Whereupon  St.  Nicholas,  feel 
ing  a  little  waggish,  after  putting  their  wigs  the 
hinder  part  before,  and  placing  a  great  China  bowl 
upside  down  on  the  head  of  old  Baltus,  who  sat 
nodding  like  a  mandarin,  departed  laughing  ready 
to  split  his  sides.  In  the  morning,  when  Baltus 
and  his  companions  awoke,  and  saw  what  a  figure 
they  cut,  they  laid  all  the  trick  to  the  door  of  the 
stranger,  and  never  knew  to  the  last  day  of  their 
lives  who  it  was  that  caroused  with  them  so  lustily 
on  Newyear's  morning. 

K  2 


220  THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

Pursuing  his  way  in  high  good  humour,  being 
somewhat  exhilarated  by  the  stout  carousal  with  old 
Baltus  and  his  roistering  companions,  St.  Nicholas 
in  good  time  came  into  the  ancient  Colonie,  which 
being,  as  it  were,  at  the  outskirts  of  Fort  Orange, 
was  inhabited  by  many  people  not  well  to  do  in 
the  world.  He  descended  the  chimney  of  an  old 
weatherworn  house  that  bore  evident  marks  of  pov 
erty,  for  he  is  not  one  of  those  saints  that  hanker 
after  palaces  and  turn  their  backs  on  their  friends. 
It  is  his  pleasure  to  seek  out  and  administer  to 
the  innocent  gratifications  of  those  who  are  obliged 
to  labour  all  the  year  round,  and  can  only  spare 
time  to  be  merry  at  Christmas  and  Newyear.  He 
is  indeed  the  poor  man's  saint. 

On  entering  the  room,  he  was  struck  with  the 
appearance  of  poverty  and  desolation  that  reigned 
all  around.  A  number  of  little  children  of  different 
ages,  but  none  more  than  ten  years  old,  lay  hud 
dled  close  together  on  a  straw  bed,  which  was 
on  the  floor,  their  limbs  intertwined  to  keep  them 
selves  warm,  for  their  covering  was  scant  and  mise 
rable.  Yet  they  slept  in  peace,  for  they  had  quiet 
countenances,  and  hunger  seeks  refuge  in  the  ob 
livion  of  repose.  In  a  corner  of  the  room  stood  a 
miserable  bed,  on  which  lay  a  female,  whose 
face,  as  the  moonbeams  fell  upon  it  through  a 
window  without  shutters,  many  panes  of  which 
were  stuffed  with  old  rags  to  keep  out  the  nip 
ping  air  of  the  winter  night,  bore  evidence  of 
long  and  painful  suffering.  It  looked  like  death 


THE    RIDE    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS.  221 

'rather  than  sleep.  A  little  pine  table,  a  few  broken 
chairs,  and  a  dresser,  whose  shelves  were  ill  sup 
plied,  constituted  the  remainder  of  the  furniture 
of  this  mansion  of  poverty. 

As  he  stood  contemplating  the  scene,  his  honest 
old  heart  swelled  with  sorrowful  compassion,  saying 
to  himself,  "  God  bewaar  ous,  but  this  is  pitiful." 
At  that  moment,  a  little  child  on  the  straw  bed  cried 
out  in  a  weak  voice  that  went  to  the  heart  of  the 
saint,  "  Mother,  mother,  give  me  to  eat — I  am 
hungry."  St.  Nicholas  went  to  the  child,  but  she 
was  fast  asleep,  and  hunger  had  infected  her  very 
dreams.  The  mother  did  not  hear,  for  long-con 
tinued  sorrow  and  suffering  sleep  sounder  than 
happiness,  as  the  waters  lie  stillest  when  the  tem 
pest  is  past. 

Again  the  little  child  cried  out,  "  Mother,  mother, 
I  arn  freezing — give  me  some  more  covering." 
41  Be  quiet,  Blandina,"  answered  a  voice  deep  and 
hoarse,  yet  not  unkind  ;  and  St.  Nicholas,  looking 
around  to  see  whence  it  came,  beheld  a  man  sitting 
close  "in  the  chimney  corner^  though  there  was  no 
fire  burning,  his  arms  folded  close  around  him,  ana 
his  head  drooping  on  his  bosom.  He  was  clad  like 
one  of  the  children  of  poverty,  and  his  teeth  chat 
tered  with  cold.  St.  Nicholas  wiped  his  eyes,  for 
he  was  a  good-hearted  saint,  and  coming  close  up 
to  the  miserable  man,  said  to  him  kindly,  "  How 
do  ye,  my  good  friend  ?" 

"  Friend,"  said  the  other,  "  I  have  no  friend  but 
God,  and  he  seems  to  have  deserted  me."  As  he 
19* 


222  THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

said  this,  he  raised  his  saddened  eyes  to  the  good 
saint,  and  after  looking  at  him  a  little  while,  as  if 
he  was  not  conscious  of  his  presence,  dropped  them 
again,  even  without  asking  who  he  was,  or  whence 
he  came,  or  what  he  wanted.  Despair  had  dead 
ened  his  faculties,  and  nothing  remained  in  his 
mind  but  the  consciousness  of  suffering. 

"  Het  is  jammer,  het  is  jammer — it  is  a  pity,  it 
is  a  pity !"  quoth  the  kind-hearted  saint,  as  he 
passed  his  sleeve  across  his  eyes.  "  But  some 
thing  must  be  done,  and  that  quickly  too."  So  he 
shook  the  poor  man  somewhat  roughly  by  the 
shoulder,  and  cried  out,  "Ho  !  ho !  what  aileth  thee, 
son  of  my  good  old  friend,  honest  Johannes  Garre- 
brantze  ?" 

This  salutation  seemed  to  rouse  the  poor  man, 
who  arose  upon  his  seat,  and  essaying  to  stand  up 
right,  fell  into  the  arms  of  St.  Nicholas,  who  almost 
believed  it  was  a  lump  of  ice,  so  cold  and  stiff  did 
it  seem.  Now,  be  it  known  that  Providence,  as  a 
reward  for  his  benevolent  disposition,  has  bestowed 
on  St.  Nicholas  the  privilege  of  doing  good  with 
out  measure  to  all  who  are  deserving  of  his 
bounty,  and  that  by  such  means  as  he  thinks  prop 
er  to  the  purpose.  It  is  a  power  he  seldom  ex 
erts  to  the  uttermost,  except  on  pressing  occasions, 
and  this  he  believed  one  of  them. 

Perceiving  that  the  poor  man  was  wellnigh  fro 
zen  to  death,  he  called  into  action  the  supernatural 
faculties  which  had  been  committed  to  him,  and 
lo !  in  an  instant  a  rousing  fire  blazed  on  the  hearth, 


THE    RIDE    OP    ST.   NICHOLAS.  223 

towards  which  the  poor  man,  instinctively  as  it 
were,  edged  his  chair,  and  stretched  out  one  of  his 
bony  hands,  that  was  as  stiff  as  an  icicle.  The 
light  flashed  so  brightly  in  the  face  of  the  little 
ones  and  their  mother,  that  they  awoke,  and  see 
ing  the  cheerful  blaze,  arose  in  their  miserable 
clothing,  which  they  had  worn  to  aid  in  keeping 
them  warm,  and  hied  as  fast  as  they  could  to  bask 
in  its  blessed  warmth.  So  eager  were  they,  that 
for  a  while  they  were  unconscious  of  the  presence 
of  a  stranger,  although  St.  Nicholas  had  now  as 
sumed  his  proper  person,  that  he  might  not  be 
taken  for  some  one  of  those  diabolical  wizards 
who,  being  always  in  mischief,  are  ashamed  to 
show  their  faces  among  honest  people. 

At  length  the  poor  man,  who  was  called  after  his 
father  Johannes  Garrebrantze,  being  somewhat  re 
vived  by  the  genial  warmth  of  the  fire,  looked 
around,  and  became  aware  of  the  presence  of  the 
stranger,  which  inspired  him  with  a  secret  awe,  for 
which  he  could  not  account,  insomuch  that  his 
voice  trembled,  though  now  he  was  not  cold,  when, 
after  some  hesitation,  he  said, 

"  Stranger,  thou  art  welcome  to  this  poor  house. 
I  would  I  were  better  able  to  offer  thee  the  hospi 
talities  of  the  season,  but  I  will  wish  thee  a  happy 
Newyear,  and  that  is  all  I  can  bestow."  The  good 
yffrouw,  his  wife,  repeated  the  wish,  and  straight 
way  began  to  apologize  for  the  untidy  state  of  her 
apartment. 

"  Make  no  apologies,"  replied  the  excellent  saint ; 


224  THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

"  I  come  to  give,  not  to  receive.     To-night  I  treat, 
to-morrow  you  may  return  the  kindness  to  others." 

"  I  ?"  said  Johannes  Garrebrantze  ;  "  I  have  no 
thing  to  bestow  but  good  wishes,  and  nothing  to  re 
ceive  but  the  scorn  and  neglect  of  the  world.  If  I 
had  anything  to  give  thee  to  eat  or  drink,  thou 
shouldst  have  it  with  all  my  heart.  But  the  new 
year,  which  brings  jollity  to  the  hearts  of  others, 
brings  nothing  but  hunger  and  despair  to  me  and 
mine." 

"  Thou  hast  seen  better  days,  I  warrant  thee," 
answered  the  saint ;  "  for  thou  speakest  like  a 
scholar  of  Leyden.  Tell  me  thy  story,  Johannes, 
my  son,  and  we  shall  see  whether  in  good  time 
thou  wilt  not  hold  up  thy  head  as  high  as  a  church 
steeple." 

"  Alas !  to  what  purpose,  since  man  assuredly 
has,  and  Heaven  seems  to  have  forsaken  me." 

"  Hush  !"  cried  St.  Nicholas,  "  Heaven  never 
forsakes  the  broken  spirit,  or  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
cries  of  innocent  children.  It  is  for  the  wicked 
never  to  hope,  the  virtuous  never  to  despair.  I  pre 
dict  thou  shalt  live  to  see  better  days." 

"  I  must  see  them  soon  then,  for  neither  I,  my 
wife,  nor  my  children  have  tasted  food  since  twen 
ty-four  hours  past." 

"  What !  God  be  with  us !  is  there  such  lack  of 
charity  in  the  burghers  of  the  Colonie,  that  they 
will  suffer  a  neighbour  to  starve  under  their  very 
noses  ?  Onbegrypelik — I'll  not  believe  it."  ( 

"  They  know  not  my  necessities." 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  225 

"  No  ?  What !  hast  thou  no  tongue  to  speak 
them  ?" 

"  I  am  too  proud  to  beg." 

"  And  too  lazy  to  work,"  cried  St.  Nicholas,  in  a 
severe  tone. 

"  Look  you,"  answered  the  other,  holding  up  his 
right  arm  with  his  left,  and  showing  that  the  sinews 
were  stiffened  by  rheumatism. 

"  Is  it  so,  my  friend  ?  Well,  but  thou  mightst 
still  have  bent  thy  spirit  to  ask  charity  for  thy 
starving  wife  and  children,  though,  in  truth,  begging 
is  the  last  thing  an  honest  man  ought  to  stoop  to. 
But  Goeden  Hemel !  here  am  I  talking  while  thou 
and  thine  are  perishing  with  hunger." 

Saying  which,  St.  Nicholas  straightway  bade  the 
good  yffrouw  to  bring  forth  the  little  pine  table, 
which  she  did,  making  divers  apologies  for  the 
want  of  a  tablecloth ;  and  when  she  had  done  so, 
he  incontinently  spread  out  upon  it  such  store  of 
good  things  from  his  little  cart,  as  made  the  hungry 
childrens'  mouths  to  water,  and  smote  the  hearts 
of  their  parents  with  joyful  thanksgivings.  "  Eat, 
drink,  and  be  merry,"  said  St.  Nicholas,  "  for  to 
morrow  thou  shall  not  die,  but  live." 

The  heart  of  the  good  saint  expanded,  like  as  the 
morning-glory  does  to  the  first  rays  of  the  sun, 
while  he  sat  rubbing  his  hands  at  seeing  them  eat 
with  such  a  zest,  as  made  him  almost  think  it  was 
worth  while  to  be  hungry  in  order  to  enjoy  such 
triumphant  satisfaction.  When  they  had  done,  and 
returned  their  pious  thanks  to  Heaven  and  the 
K  3 


226  THE   RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

good  stranger,  St.  Nicholas  willed  the  honest  man 
to  expound  the  causes  which  had  brought  him  to 
his  present  deplorable  condition.  "  My  own  folly," 
said  he  ;  and  the  other  sagely  replied,  "  I  thought 
as  much.  Beshrew  me,  friend,  if  in  all  my  experi 
ence,  and  I  have  lived  long,  and  seen  much,  I  ever 
encountered  distress  and  poverty  that  could  not  be 
traced  to  its  source  in  folly  or  vice.  Heaven  is  too 
bountiful  to  entail  misery  on  its  creatures,  save 
through  their  own  transgressions.  But  I  pray  thee, 
go  on  with  thy  story." 

The  good  man  then  went  on  to  relate  that  his 
father,  old  Johannes  Garrebrantze — 

"  Ah  !"  quoth  St.  Nicholas,  "  I  knew  him  well. 
He  was  an  honest  man,  and  that,  in  these  times  of 
all  sorts  of  improvements,  except  in  mind  and  mor 
als,  is  little  less  than  miraculous.  But  I  interrupt 
thee,  friend — proceed  with  thy  story,  once  more." 

The  son  of  Johannes  again  resumed  his  story, 
and  related  how  his  father  had  left  him  a  compe 
tent  estate  in  the  Colonie,  on  which  he  lived  in  good 
credit,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  reasonable  com 
petency,  with  his  wife  and  children,  until  within  a 
few  years  past,  when  seeing  a  vast  number  of 
three-story  houses,  with  folding  doors  and  marble 
mantelpieces  rising  up  all  around  him,  he  began  to 
be  ashamed  of  his  little  one-story  house  with  the 
gable  end  to  the  street,  and — 

"  Ah  !  Johannes,"  interrupted  the  pale  wife,  "  do 
not  spare  me.  It  was  I  that  in  the  vanity  of  my 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  227 

heart  put  such  notions  in  thy  head.  It  was  I  that 
tempted  thee." 

"  It  was  the  duyvel,"  muttered  St.  Nicholas,  "  in 
the  shape  of  a  pretty  wife." 

Johannes  gave  his  helpmate  a  look  of  affectionate 
forgiveness,  and  went  on  to  tell  St.  Nicholas  how, 
finally  egged  on  by  the  evil  example  of  his  neigh 
bours,  he  had  at  last  committed  sacrilege  against 
his  household  gods,  and  pulled  down  the  home  of 
his  fathers,  commencing  a  new  one  on  its  ruins. 

"Donderdag  !"  quoth  the  saint  to  himself;  "  and 
the  bricks  came  from  faderland  too  !" 

When  Johannes  had  about  half  finished  his  new 
house,  he  discovered  one  day,  to  his  great  astonish 
ment  and  dismay,  that  all  his  money,  which  he  had 
been  saving  for  his  children,  was  gone.  His  strong 
box  was  empty,  and  his  house  but  half  finished, 
although,  after  estimating  the  cost,  he  had  allowed 
one  third  more  in  order  to  be  sure  in  the  business. 

Johannes  was  now  at  a  dead  stand.  The  idea 
of  borrowing  money  and  running  in  debt  never  en 
tered  his  head  before,  and  probably  would  not 
now,  had  it  not  been  suggested  to  him  by  a 
neighbour,  a  great  speculator,  who  had  lately  built  a 
whole  street  of  houses,  not  a  single  brick  of  which 
belonged  to  him  in  reality.  He  had  borrowed  the 
money,  mortgaged  the  property,  and  expected  to 
grow  rich  by  a  sudden  rise.  Poor  Johannes 
may  be  excused  for  listening  to  the  seductions  of 
this  losel  varlet,  seeing  he  had  a  house  half  fin 
ished  on  his  hands ;  but  whether  so  or  not,  he  did 


228  THE    RIDE    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS. 

listen  and  was  betrayed  into  borrowing  money  of 
a  bank  just  then  established  in  the  Colonie  on  a 
capital  paid  in  according  to  law — that  is,  not  paid  at 
all — the  directors  of  which  were  very  anxious  to 
exchange  their  rags  for  lands  and  houses. 

Johannes  finished  his  house  in  glorious  style, 
and  having  opened  this  new  mine  of  wealth,  fur 
nished  it  still  more  gloriously ;  and  as  it  would 
have  been  sheer  nonsense  not  to  live  gloriously  in 
such  a  glorious  establishment,  spent  thrice  his  in 
come  in  order  to  keep  up  his  respectability.  He 
was  going  on  swimmingly,  when  what  is  called  a 
reaction  took  place  ;  which  means,  as  far  as  I  can 
understand,  that  the  bank  directors,  having  been 
pleased  to  make  money  plenty  to  increase  their 
dividends,  are  pleased  thereafter  to  make  it  scarce 
for  the  same  purpose.  Instead  of  lending  it  in  the 
name  of  the  bank,  it  is  credibly  reported  they  do 
it  through  certain  brokers,  who  charge  lawful  in 
terest  and  unlawful  commission,  and  thus  cheat 
the  law  with  a  clear  conscience.  But  I  thank 
Heaven  devoutly  that  I  know  nothing  of  their 
wicked  mysteries,  and  therefore  will  say  no  more 
about  them. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  Johannes  was  called  upon  all 
of  a  sudden  to  pay  his  notes  to  the  bank,  for  the 
reaction  had  commenced,  and  there  was  no  more 
renewals.  The  directors  wanted  all  the  money  to 
lend  out  at  three  per  cent,  a  month.  It  became 
necessary  to  raise  the  wind,  as  they  say  in  Wall- 
street,  and  Johannes,  by  the  advice  of  his  good 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  229 

friend  the  speculative  genius,  went  with  him  to  a 
certain  money  lender  of  his  acquaintance,  who  was 
reckoned  a  good  Christian,  because  he  always 
charged  most  usury  where  there  was  the  greatest 
necessity  for  a  loan.  To  a  rich  man  he  would  lend 
at  something  like  a  reasonable  interest,  but  to  a  man 
in  great  distress  for  money  he  showed  about  as 
much  mercy  as  a  weazel  does  to  a  chicken.  He 
sucked  their  blood  till  there  was  not  a  drop  left  in 
their  bodies.  This  he  did  six  days  in  the  week, 
and  on  the  seventh  went  three  times  to  church,  to 
enable  him  to  begin  the  next  week  with  a  clear  con 
science.  Beshrew  such  varlets,  I  say  ;  they  bring 
religion  itself  into  disrepute,  and  add  the  sin  of  hy 
pocrisy  to  men  to  that  of  insult  to  Heaven. 

Suffice  it  to  say,  that  poor  Johannes  Garrebrantze 
the  younger  went  down  hill  faster  than  he  ever  went 
up  in  his  life ;  and  inasmuch  as  I  scorn  these  details 
of  petty  roguery  as  unworthy  of  my  cloth  and  calling, 
I  shall  content  myself  with  merely  premising,  that 
by  a  process  very  common  nowadays,  the  poor 
man  was  speedily  bereft  of  all  the  patrimony  left 
him  by  his  worthy  father  in  paying  commission  to 
the  money  lender.  He  finally  became  bankrupt ; 
and  inasmuch  as  he  was  unacquainted  with  the 
mystery  of  getting  rich  by  such  a  manoeuvre,  was 
left  without  a  shilling  in  the  world.  He  retired 
from  his  fine  house,  which  was  forthwith  occupied 
by  his  good  friend  the  money  lender,  whose  nose 
had  been  tweaked  by  St.  Nicholas,  as  heretofore 
recorded,  and  took  refuge  in  the  wretched  building 
20 


230  THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

where  he  was  found  by  that  benevolent  worthy. 
Destitute  of  resources,  and  entirely  unacquainted 
with  the  art  of  living  by  his  wits  or  his  labours, 
though  he  tried  hard  both  ways,  poor  Johannes  be 
came  gradually  steeped  in  poverty  to  the  very  lips, 
and  being  totally  disabled  by  rheumatism,  might, 
peradventure,  with  all  his  family,  have  perished  that 
very  night,  had  not  Providence  mercifully  sent  the 
good  St.  Nicholas  to  their  relief. 

"  Wat  donderdag  /"  exclaimed  the  saint,  when  he 
had  done — "  wat  donderdag ! — was  that  your  house 
down  yonder,  with  the  fine  bedroom,  the  wardrobes, 
the  looking-glass  as  big  as  the  moon,  and  the  bed 
stead  with  a  cocked  hat  and  feathers  ?" 

"  Even  so,"  replied  the  other,  hanging  down  his 
head. 

"  Is  het  mogelyk  /"  And  after  considering  a  little 
while,  the  good  saint  slapped  his  hand  on  the  table, 
broke  forth  again — "  By  donderdag,  but  I'll  soon 
settle  this  business." 

He  then  began  to  hum  an  old  Dutch  hymn,  which 
by  its  soothing  and  wholesome  monotony  so  ope 
rated  upon  Johannes  and  his  family,  that  one  and 
all  fell  fast  asleep  in  their  chairs. 

The  good  St.  Nicholas  then  lighted  his  pipe,  and 
seating  himself  by  the  fire,  revolved  in  his  mind 
the  best  mode  of  proceeding  on  this  occasion.  At 
first  he  determined  to  divest  the  rich  money  lender 
of  all  his  ill-gotten  gains,  and  bestow  them  on  poor 
Johannes  and  his  family.  But  when  he  considered 
that  the  losel  caitiff  was  already  sufficiently  pun- 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  231 

ished  in  being  condemned  to  the  sordid  toils  of 
money  making,  and  in  the  privation  of  all  those 
social  and  benevolent  feelings  which,  while  they 
contribute  to  our  own  happiness,  administer  to  that 
of  others ;  that  he  was  for  ever  beset  with  the  con 
suming  cares  of  avarice,  the  hope  of  gain,  and  the 
fear  of  losses  ;  and  that,  rich  as  he  was,  he  suffered 
all  the  gnawing  pangs  of  an  insatiable  desire  for 
more — when  he  considered  all  this,  St.  Nicholas 
decided  to  leave  him  to  the  certain  punishment  of 
ill-gotten  wealth,  and  the  chances  of  losing  it  by  an 
over  craving  appetite  for  its  increase,  which  sooner 
or  later  produces  all  the  consequences  of  reckless 
imprudence. 

"  Let  the  splutterkin  alone,"  thought  St.  Nicho 
las,  "  and  he  will  become  the  instrument  of  his 
own  punishment." 

Then  he  went  on  to  think  what  he  should  do  for 
poor  Johannes  and  his  little  children.  Though  he 
had  been  severely  punished  for  his  folly,  yet  did 
the  good  saint,  who  in  his  nightly  holyday  pere 
grinations  had  seen  more  of  human  life  and  human 
passions  than  the  sun  ever  shone  upon,  very  well 
know  that  sudden  wealth,  or  sudden  poverty,  is  a 
sore  trial  of  the  heart  of  man,  in  like  manner  as  the 
sudden  transition  from  light  to  darkness,  or  dark 
ness  to  light,  produces  a  temporary  blindness.  It 
was  true  that  Johannes  had  received  a  severe  les 
son,  but  the  great  mass  of  mankind  are  prone  to 
forget  the  chastening  rod  of  experience,  as  they  do 
the  pangs  of  sickness  when  they  are  past.  He 


232  THE   RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

therefore  settled  in  his  mind,  that  the  return  of  Jo 
hannes  to  competence  and  prosperity  should  be  by 
the  salutary  process  of  his  own  exertions,  and  that 
he  should  learn  their  value  by  the  pains  it  cost  to 
attain  them.  "  Het  is  goed  visschen  in  troebel 
water"  quoth  he,  "  for  then  a  man  knows  the  value 
of  what  he  catches." 

It  was  broad  daylight  before  he  had  finished  his 
pipe  and  his  cogitations,  and  placing  his  old  pol 
ished  delft  pipe  carefully  in  his  buttonhole,  the  good 
saint  sallied  forth,  leaving  Johannes  and  his  family 
still  fast  asleep  in  their  chairs.  Directly  opposite 
the  miserable  abode  of  Johannes  there  dwelt  a  lit 
tle  fat  Dutchman,  of  a  reasonable  competency, 
who  had  all  his  life  manfully  stemmed  the  torrent 
of  modern  innovation.  He  eschewed  all  sorts  of 
paper  money  as  an  invention  of  people  without 
property  to  get  hold  of  those  that  had  it ;  abhorred 
the  practice  of  widening  streets ;  and  despised  in 
his  heart  all  public  improvements  except  canals, 
a  sneaking  notion  for  which  he  inherited  from 
old  faderland.  He  was  honest  as  the  light  of  the 
blessed  sun ;  and  though  he  opened  his  best  par 
lour  but  twice  a  year  to  have  it  cleaned  and  put 
to  rights,  yet  this  I  will  say  of  him,  that  the  poor 
man  who  wanted  a  dinner  was  never  turned  away 
from  his  table.  The  worthy  burgher  was  standing 
at  the  street  door,  which  opened  in  the  middle,  and 
leaning  over  the  lower  half,  so  that  the  .smoke  of 
his  pipe  ascended  in  the  clear  frosty  morning  in  a 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  233 

little  white  column  far  into  the  sky  before  it  was 
dissipated.  f 

St.  Nicholas  stopped  his  wagon  right  before  his 
door,  and  cried  out  in  a  clear  hearty  voice, 

"  Good-morning,  good-morning,  mynheer;  and  a 
happy  Newyear  to  you." 

*4  Good-morning,"  cried  the  hale  old  burgher, 
"  and  many  happy  Newyears  to  you.  Hast  got 
any  good  fat  hen  turkies  to  sell  ?"  for  he  took  him 
for  a  countryman  coming  in  to  market.  St.  Nich 
olas  answered  and  said  that  he  had  been  on  a  dif 
ferent  errand  that  morning ;  and  the  other  cordial 
ly  invited  him  to  alight,  come  in,  and  take  a  glass 
of  hot  spiced  rum,  with  the  which  it  was  his  cus 
tom  to  regale  all  comers  at  the  jolly  Newyear. 
The  invitation  was  frankly  accepted,  for  the  wor 
thy  St.  Nicholas,  though  no  toper,  was  never  a 
member  of  the  temperance  society.  He  chose 
to  be  keeper  of  his  own  conscience,  and  was  of 
opinion  that  a  man  who  is  obliged  to  sign  an  obli 
gation  not  to  drink,  will  be  very  likely  to  break  it 
the  first  convenient  opportunity. 

As  they  sat  cozily  together,  by  a  rousing  fire  of 
wholesome  and  enlivening  hickory,  the  little  plump 
Dutchman  occasionally  inveighing  stoutly  against 
paper  money,  railroads,  improving  streets,  and  the 
like,  the  compassionate  saint  took  occasion  to  utter 
a  wish  that  the  poor  man  over  the  way  and  his 
starving  family  had  some  of  the  good  things  that 
were  so  rife  on  Newyear's  day,  for  he  had  occasion 
20* 


234  THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS. 

to  know  that  they  were  suffering  all  the  evils  of 
the  most  abject  poverty. 

"  The  splutterkin,"  exclaimed  the  little  fat  burgh 
er — "  he  is  as  proud  as  Lucifer  himself.  I  had  a 
suspicion  of  this,  and  sought  divers  occasions  to  get 
acquainted  with  him,  that  I  might  have  some  excuse 
for  prying  into  his  necessities,  and  take  the  privilege 
of  an  old  neighbour  to  relieve  them.  But  vuur  en 
vlammen !  would  you  believe  it — he  avoided  me 
just  as  if  he  owed  me  money,  and  couldn't  pay." 

St.  Nicholas  observed  that  if  it  was  ever  excusa 
ble  for  a  man  to  be  proud,  it  was  when  he  fell  into 
a  state  where  every  one,  high  and  low,  worthless 
and  honourable,  looked  down  upon  him  with  con 
tempt.  Then  he  related  to  him  the  story  of  poor 
Johannes,  and  taking  from  his  pocket  a  heavy  purse, 
he  offered  it  to  the  worthy  old  burgher,  who  swore 
he  would  be  dondered  if  he  wanted  any  of  his 
money. 

"  But  hearken  tome,"  said  the  saint ;  "  yon  foolish 
lad  is  the  son  of  an  old  friend  of  mine,  who  did  me 
many  a  kindness  in  his  day,  for  which  I  am  willing 
to  requite  his  posterity.  Thou  shalt  take  this  purse 
and  bestow  a  small  portion  of  it,  as  from  thyself, 
as  a  loan  from  time  to  time,  as  thou  seest  he  de 
serves  it  by  his  exertions.  It  may  happen,  as  I  hope 
it  will,  that  in  good  time  he  will  acquire  again  the 
competency  he  hath  lost  by  his  own  folly  and  inex 
perience  ;  and  as  he  began  the  world  a  worthy,  re 
spectable  citizen,  I  beseech  thee  to  do  this — to  be 


THE   RIDE   OP   ST.  NICHOLAS.  235 

his  friend,  and  to  watch  over  him  and  his  little  ones, 
in  the  name  of  St.  Nicholas." 

The  portly  Burgher  promised  that  he  would, 
and  they  parted  with  marvellous  civility,  St.  Nich 
olas  having  promised  to  visit  him  again  should  his 
life  be  spared.  He  then  mounted  his  little  wagon, 
and  the  little  Dutchman  having  turned  his  head  for 
an  instant,  when  he  looked  again  could  see  nothing 
of  the  saint  or  his  equipage.  "  Is  het  mogelyk  /" 
exclaimed  he,  and  his  mind  misgave  him  that  there 
was  something  unaccountable  in  the  matter. 

My  story  is  already  too  long,  peradventure,  else 
would  I  describe  the  astonishment  of  Johannes  and 
his  wife  when  they  awoke  and  found  the  benevolent 
stranger  had  departed  without  bidding  them  fare 
well.  They  would  have  thought  all  that  had  passed 
was  but  a  dream,  had  not  the  fragments  of  the  good 
things  on  which  they  regaled  during  the  night  bore 
testimony  to  its  reality.  Neither  will  I  detail  how, 
step  by  step,  aided  by  the  advice  and  countenance 
of  the  worthy  little  Dutchman,  and  the  judicious 
manner  of  his  dispensing  the  bounty  of  St.  Nicholas, 
Johannes  Garrebrantze,  by  a  course  of  industry, 
economy,  and  integrity,  at  length  attained  once  again 
the  station  he  had  lost  by  his  follies  and  extrava 
gance.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  though  he  practised 
a  rational  self-denial  in  all  his  outlayings,  he  neither 
'became  a  miser,  nor  did  he  value  money  except  as 
the  means  of  obtaining  the  comforts  of  life,  and 
administering  to  the  happiness  of  others. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  money  lender,  not  being 


236  THE    RIDE    OF   ST.  NICHOLAS. 

content  with  the  wealth  he  had  obtained  by  taking 
undue  advantage  of  the  distresses  of  others,  and 
becoming  every  day  more  greedy,  launched  out  into 
mighty  speculations.  He  founded  a  score  of  towns 
without  any  houses  in  them  ;  dealt  by  hundreds  of 
thousands  in  fancy  stocks  ;  and  finally  became  the 
victim  of  one  of  his  own  speculations,  by  in  time 
coming  to  believe  in  the  very  deceptions  he  had 
practised  upon  others.  It  is  an  old  saying,  that  the 
greatest  rogue  in  the  world,  sooner  or  latter,  meets 
with  his  match,  and  so  it  happened  with  the  money 
lender.  He  was  seduced  into  the  purchase  of  a 
town  without  any  houses  in  it,  at  an  expense  of 
millions ;  was  met  by  one  of  those  reactions  that 
play  the  mischief  with  honest  labourers,  and  thus 
finally  perished  in  a  bottomless  pit  of  his  own  dig 
ging.  Finding  himself  sinking,  he  resorted  to  for 
geries,  and  had  by  this  means  raised  money  to  such 
an  amount,  that  his  villany  almost  approached  to 
sublimity.  His  property,  as  the  phrase  is,  came 
under  the  hammer,  and  Johannes  purchased  his 
own  house  at  half  the  price  it  cost  him  in  building. 
The  good  St.  Nicholas  trembled  at  the  new  or 
deal  to  which  Johannes  had  subjected  himself;  but 
finding,  when  he  visited  him,  as  he  did  regularly 
every  Newyear's  eve,  that  he  was  cured  of  his  fool 
ish  vanities,  and  that  his  wife  was  one  of  the  best 
housekeepers  in  all  Fort  Orange,  he  discarded  his 
apprehensions,  and  rejoiced  in  the  prosperity  that 
was  borne  so  meekly  and  wisely.  The  little  fat 
Dutchman  lived  a  long  time  in  expectation  that  the 


THE    RIDE    OF    ST.  NICHOLAS.  237 

stranger  in  the  one-horse  wagon  would  come  for 
the  payment  of  his  purse  of  money ;  but  finding  that 
year  after  year  rolled  away  without  his  appearing, 
often  said  to  himself,  as  he  sat  on  his  stoop  with  a 
pipe  in  his  mouth, 

"  I'll  be  dondered  if  I  don't  believe  it  was  the 
good  St.  Nicholas." 


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and  the  Cato  and  Lsjlius  by  MELMOTH. 

In  2  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

VIRGIL. 

The  Eclogues  translated  by  WRANGHAM,  the  Georgics  by 
SOTHEBY,  and  the  J2neid  by  DRYDEN. 


In  one  vol.  18mo., 

AESCHYLUS. 

Translated  by  the  Rev.  R.  POTTER,  M.A. 
In  one  vol.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

SOPHOCLES. 

Translated  by  THOMAS  FRANCKLIN,  D.D 
In  3  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

EURIPIDES. 

Translated  by  the  Rev.  R.  POTTER,  M.A. 
In  2  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

HORACE. 

Translated  by  PHILIP  FRANCIS,  D.D. 
With  an  Appendix,  containing  translations  of  various  Odes,  &c. 

By   BEN  JONSON,   COWLEY,  MILTON,  DRYPEN,  POPE,  ADDISON,  SWIFT, 
BENTLEY,  CHATTERTON,  G.   WAKEFIELD,  PORSON,  BYRON,  4e. 

And  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  Poets  of  the  present  day. 

P  H  M  D   R  U  S. 

With  the  Appendix  of  Gudius. 
Translated  by  CHRISTOPHER  SMART,  A.M 


Published  by  Harper  <f  Brothers.  13 

In  2  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

OVID. 

1  rarjslated  by  DRYDEN,  POPE,  CONGREVE,  ADDISON, 

and  others. 

In  3  vols.  I8mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

HERODOTUS. 

Translated  by  the  Rev.  WILLIAM  BELOE. 
In  3  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

HOMER. 

Translated  by  ALEXANDER  POPE,  Esq. 
In  5  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

L  I   V  Y. 

Translated  by  GEORGE  BAKER,  A.M. 
In  2  vols.  18mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

THUCYDIDES. 

Translated  by  WILLIAM  SMITH,  A.M. 
In  one  vol.  8vo.,  with  Plates, 

PLUTARCH'S  LIVES. 

Translated  from  the  original  Greek,  with  Notes,  Crit 
ical  and  Historical,  and  a  Life  of  Plutarch. 
By  JOHN  LANGHORNE,  D.D.,  and  WM.  LANGHORNE,  A.M. 
A  New  Edition,  carefully  revised  and  corrected. 

In  one  vol.  12mo.,  with  a  Portrait, 

A  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

In  Latin  Prose. 
By  FRANCIS  GLASS,  A.M.,  of  Ohio. 

Edited  by  J.  N.  Reynolds. 


Interesting   Works 
In  one  vol.  8vo., 


or  the  Relation  which  Words  bear  to  Things. 
By  A.  B.  JOHNSON. 

In  one  vol.  8vo.,  with  numerous  Illustrative  Engravings, 

THE  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  OF  SURVEYING  ; 

containing  all  the  Instructions  requisite  for  the  skilful  practice 

of  this  art. 

With  a  new  set  of  accurate  Mathematical  Tables. 
By  ROBERT  GIBSON. 

Newly  arranged,  improved,  and  enlarged,  with  useful  selections, 
by  JAMES  RYAN. 

In  one  vol.  8vo., 

AN   ELEMENTARY  TREATISE  ON  MECHANICS. 

Translated  from  the  French  of  M.  Eoucharlat. 

With  additions  and  emendations,  designed  to  adapt  it  to  the  use  of 

the  Cadets  of  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy. 

By  EDWARD  H.  COURTENAY. 


In  one  vol.  48mo., 
Sfce  a&etlcule  antr  33ocfeet  Companion ; 

OR, 

MINIATURE  LEXICON  OF  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE 
By  LYMAN  COBB. 


In  one  vol.  8vo., 


With  copious  Illustrations  and  Explanations,  drawn  from  the 
best  Writers. 

By  GEORGE  CRABB    M.A. 


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